Use of Bagasse as a Feed Input to Semi-Intensive Shrimp Growout Ponds

Efforts to reduce the cost of growout feeds for aquaculture have traditionally focused on the use of agricultural wastes as direct or indirect nutritional supplements to support semi‐intensive production levels. The merits of a low cost, sugar cane bagasse‐based feed for semi‐intensive production of Penaeus vannarnei were evaluated. Shrimp averaging 0.24 g each were stocked into 200 m2 earthen ponds at 20/m2 and cultured for a 12 week period. Two bagasse‐based feed treatments, a manure‐based treatment and a no‐feed input control, were compared in replicate ponds. One bagasse treatment (artificial manure) was designed to mimic manure and stimulate autotrophic and heterotrophic growth. The other bagasse treatment (bagasse alone plus inorganics) was designed to stimulate primarily autotrophic growth. Both bagasse treatments produced average growth rates of 0.78 g/wk, which were significantly greater than that of the manure treatment (0.57 g/wk). Lack of difference between the two bagasse treatments suggests that additional supplements used in making artificial manure probably were unnecessary to the nutrition of the shrimp. At harvest, bottom organics in the bagasse‐fed ponds were at least twice as great as manure‐fed ponds, and may have contributed to the lower survival associated with these treatments.