Resumen

GONZALEZ, Deokie; CORDOBA, José; INDORF, Federico  y  BUITRAGO, Esperanza. Preliminary Studies of Fish Silage Use in White Shrimp (Litopenaeus schmitti) Diet Formulation.. Rev. Cient. (Maracaibo) [online]. 2007, vol.17, n.2, pp.166-172. ISSN 0798-2259.

The high cost of fish meal used in shrimp feed has encouraged to search for alternative protein sources for shrimp feed. The use of fish silage for Litopenaeus schimiti feed is evaluated in this study. Silage total protein content is 41.5% and in an appropriate combination with soy and wheat meal can satisfy shrimps nutritional requirements. Five feed were compared: one was a commercial feed and the others were made feed with 0; 5; 10 and 15% silage concentration. Feeds total protein values were around 34.5 to 40.8%, with low lipid content in relation to the species requirements. The best growth results and gained weight were obtained with the feed with 15% silage, suggesting that this diet successfully cover the nutritional requirements of L. schimiti. However, further studies are recommended to improve feed lipid content and to test growth with higher silage concentrations. The 15% silage diet did not showed significant difference compared with the commercial feed demonstrating the success of the use of silage as a alternative protein source.

Palabras clave : Fish silage; diet; shrimp; Litopenaeus schmitti.