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Aquafeed evaluation under specific farming conditions: A RAS application Ana Nobre, Filipe Soares, Tomé Silva, Jorge Dias, Luis Conceição, Sparos, Paulo Rema, UTAD
Salmonid aquafeeds have evolved over the last halfcentury to meet the increased industrialization of this sector with the formulations representing a balance between nutritional requirements, cost, ingredient availability and sustainability standards. Currently, there is a wide variety of commercial aquafeeds designed for different generic farming conditions and fish growth stages. A precise evaluation of the suitability of aquafeeds for the particular conditions of the farm is required to optimize fish feeding and economic feed conversion. This is highly relevant for optimal fish growth and performance while ensuring optimal water quality, in RAS farms. Optimizing RAS production implies a balance between fish growth, feed efficiency and
water quality. Monitoring feeding efficiency indicators is very important not only for the economics of feed conversion but also for planning and managing the biofilter. For instance, decreasing nutrient and solid loads per kg of fish produced enables increasing the fish stocking capacity of the system. In this context, decision-supporting tools for monitoring and forecasting fish nutrient waste, including virtual environments based on mathematical models of fish physiological and metabolic processes, are critical for RAS operation planning. FEEDNETICSTM is a web application developed by SPAROS that includes a mechanistic nutrient-based model to predict fish growth and composition over time, using information on temperature, feed intake
Figure 1. FEEDNETICSTM validation charts for body weight: measured vs predicted. Based on a wide range of datasets regarding water temperature (8.5°C to 17.0°C) and feed composition: gross energy 17.5 - 24.5 MJ/kg, crude protein 37.5 - 53.5 %, crude lipids 5.8 - 27.9 %, ratio DP/DE 17.4 - 26.6.
Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 13 Issue 3 2021
