FEEDS & NUTRITION
Nutritional Science for Aquaculture Success
Review research exploring Artemia nutrition, enrichment, feed utilization, and its role in the development of shrimp and fish larvae. These studies examine nutritional quality, digestibility, feeding strategies, and the interaction of Artemia with other hatchery feeds to better understand how effective early-stage nutrition supports healthy development, growth, survival, and overall larval performance.
Yathish Ramena, Ram Babu Kurapati, Thomas Bosteels, Grace Ramena | August 2025 | Reviews in Aquaculture
Artemia (brine shrimp) is a widely used live feed in global aquaculture due to its adaptability, ease of production, and nutritional value. However, its natural levels of highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFAs), particularly DHA and EPA, may be insufficient to meet the nutritional requirements of many cultured fish species. Various enrichment strategies—including oil emulsions, microalgae, yeasts, probiotics, soy lecithin, selenium, and zinc—can enhance the nutritional and functional value of Artemia. These approaches can improve fatty acid composition and utilization while supporting digestion, immune function, gut health, pathogen resistance, and metabolic performance.
Although Artemia is extensively used in crustacean hatcheries, greater use of enriched Artemia in shrimp larviculture may provide additional benefits for larval performance and production outcomes. Optimizing enrichment protocols can help tailor Artemia to the nutritional requirements of specific aquaculture species and production stages. Continued research should focus on developing cost-effective, species-specific enrichment strategies that improve the nutritional value of Artemia while supporting more efficient and resilient aquaculture production.
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Ayushma Sharma, Grace Ramena, Annik Segree, Kailash Bohora, Fard Karim, Kala-mallik Meesala, Dalton Chennault, Yathish Ramena | June 2026 | Comparative Immunology Reports
Disease susceptibility remains a significant challenge in global shrimp production, increasing the need for strategies that support immune function and gut health. This study evaluated the effects of probiotics and immunostimulants on immune-related gene expression and gut microbiota in post-larval (PL) whiteleg shrimp. Over a 38-day period, shrimp received a basal diet (control) or diets supplemented with varying concentrations of probiotics or immunostimulants. Immune response was evaluated through expression of selected immune-related genes, while gut microbiota composition and diversity were also assessed.
Immunostimulants administered at 1 ppm increased expression of the anti-lipopolysaccharide gene compared with the control, while probiotics at 0.5, 1, and 2 ppm increased prophenoloxidase (proPO) expression. Immunostimulants at 0.5 and 1 ppm also enhanced proPO expression. Although overall gut microbiome diversity was higher in the control group than in the probiotic and immunostimulant treatments, specific bacterial groups, including Proteobacteria, were more abundant in shrimp receiving probiotics. These findings demonstrate that probiotic and immunostimulant supplementation can influence immune-related gene expression and alter the gut microbial community in post-larval whiteleg shrimp.
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Yathish Ramena, Ram Babu Kurapati, Thomas Bosteels, Grace Ramena | March 2026 | Reviews in Aquaculture
Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are molecular chaperones that help maintain cellular protein stability during environmental and physiological stress. While HSP responses in aquaculture have been widely studied in relation to temperature, salinity, pollutants, and pathogens, their nutritional regulation during early larval development remains less understood. This review examines the major HSP families in fish and shellfish larvae and proposes a Live Feed–Proteotoxic Stress–HSP (LFP–HSP) axis linking live-feed characteristics—including digestibility, metabolic and oxidative load, and associated microbiota—to HSP expression, stress physiology, and innate immune function.
The review further explores interactions among reactive oxygen species (ROS), HSPs, and innate immunity and introduces the concept of HSP-conditioned resilience, in which controlled diet-mediated HSP responses may enhance larval tolerance to subsequent stressors and pathogen challenges. Comparisons among Artemia, rotifers, Moina, Daphnia, and copepods suggest that differences in nutritional composition, structural complexity, and microbial communities may produce distinct HSP responses in fish and shellfish larvae. These findings highlight the potential use of HSPs as biomarkers for evaluating live feeds and larval quality and for developing feeding strategies designed to reduce chronic cellular stress while improving robustness in fish and shrimp hatchery production.
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Yathish Ramena, Thomas Bosteels, Nguyen Van Hoa, Chau Tai Tao, et al. | Submitted | TBD
In preparation – to be released in near future.
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Nguyen Van Hoa, Chau Tai Tao, Yathish Ramena, Thomas Bosteels | November 2025 | Can Tho University
Three feed trials conducted at Can Tho University evaluated the performance of GSLA Mackay Marine microparticulate (MP) and probiotic feeds in the hatchery culture of whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) and mud crab (Scylla paramamosain). Shrimp trials compared Mackay MP formulations with the Can Tho University standard and other commercial diets, measuring survival, growth, biomass productivity, stress response, and microbial parameters. Results showed that Mackay MP and MP Pro were competitive with leading commercial feeds, with MP Pro producing higher shrimp survival and tank biomass than the CTU control in one trial. Continued rearing through PL40 demonstrated increased final weight and biomass productivity in the Mackay treatments, although subsequent Vibrio parahaemolyticus challenge testing did not demonstrate improved survival associated with probiotic feeding.
The mud crab trial compared the CTU standard with Mackay MP and Mackay MP Pro from Zoea 1 through the crablet stage. The probiotic formulation produced significant improvements in metamorphosis, growth, survival, and productivity, while also influencing Vibrio counts and fatty acid composition. Collectively, the three trials indicate that Mackay MP and MP Pro are competitive microparticulate feeds for both whiteleg shrimp and mud crab hatchery production, with incorporation of probiotics directly into the feed particle providing additional performance benefits during the hatchery cycle. However, the results did not show that these probiotic-feeding benefits translated into greater survival during post-hatchery pathogen challenge testing.
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