Increase shrimp nursery results with POST-TOM
In recent years, disease and reducing survival rates have become major challenges for key shrimp producing countries like Vietnam and Indonesia. Shrimp farmers are looking for ways to improve growth performance and survival rates and move towards more intensive production systems. Therefore, De Heus launched a post-larvae (PL) shrimp feed product designed for improving immunity, survival rates, and performance during the shrimp nursery stage.
Combining nutritional expertise with aqua feed production technology
Our nutritionists and aqua feed production specialists combined their expertise to create a product range that contains an optimal nutrient composition with the best physical properties matching shrimp size and water stability requirements. Resulting in the POST-TOM product range for optimal growth in the cleanest possible water.
The POST-TOM feed range was tested extensively at the state-of-the art De Heus R&D facility and compared to POWER-TOM, a crumbled shrimp feed and another premium extruded market benchmark. After three weeks of feeding POST-TOM the shrimp showed fast growth, good uniformity and good health.
The growth and health performance of shrimp can be observed in Figure 1 (Average bodyweight per shrimp) and Figure 2 (Survival rates after 3 weeks of feeding). In this trial, shrimp were fed from PL12 onwards with three different diets: Power-TOM (De Heus crumbled shrimp feed), POST-TOM (De Heus extruded shrimp feed), and a benchmark premium extruded feed.
The POST-TOM range, which is carefully extruded, demonstrated significantly better performance, showing +24% higher growth and improved survival rates compared to the crumbled Power-TOM feed, and results closely matching the premium benchmark. This strong performance can be attributed to the specific extrusion parameters used in POST-TOM production, allowing for higher fat inclusion, enhanced nutrient absorption, and more effective breakdown of anti-nutritional factors. These factors contribute to improved liver and intestinal health in shrimp.
Also in terms of uniformity the POST-TOM products performed very well (6.2% more uniform compared to Power-Tom and 2% more uniform compared to the market benchmark). One of the reasons its good performance can be found in the limited leaching of the feed. The POST-TOM feed have the highest water stability and help maintain the cleanest feeding water
To summarize, leveraging De Heus's advanced extrusion capabilities and nutritional expertise for POST-TOM hatchery feed results in:
- Best and most uniform products leading to uniform growth, matching shrimp size: (0.3, 0.5, and 0.8).
- Healthiest growth and high survival rates: With optimal formulation containing crude protein levels of 50% (min).
- Reduced environmental impact due to reduced nutrient leaching and increased water stability.