The effect of macroalgal, formulated and combination diets on growth, survival and feed utilisation in the red abalone Haliotis rufescens
Introduction
Fresh macroalgae is the primary feed source used on abalone farms in Chile. Farms in the North (Regions III–V) generally use four wild-harvested species namely Lessonia trabeculata, Lessonia berteroana, Lessonia spicata and Macrocystis pyrifera while those in the South in the vicinity of Chiloé rely predominantly on wild-harvested M. pyrifera, but utilise cultured Gracilaria chilensis during winter months (Flores-Aguilar et al., 2007) (Fig. 1). When surveyed in 2006, land-based farmers considered feed to be the dominant constraint to the development of the industry, expressing concerns over the medium to long-term supply of macroalgae (Flores-Aguilar et al., 2007). Following from this concern the majority of farmers, both land and sea-based, listed feed as the most pressing research requirement. In addition, despite the industry testing various formulated diets, both locally produced and imported, concerns over poor growth rates and price had resulted in limited commercial adoption (Enríquez and Villagrán, 2008, Flores-Aguilar et al., 2007).
The experience of Chilean abalone farms in substituting macroalgal feeds with a formulated feed has been mixed, with the nutritional quality of the formulated diets, water stability and culture system design influencing performance. Culture systems designed for macroalgal diets are generally not suited to formulated diets, and require modifications to facilitate feed presentation and associated alterations to husbandry practices. As Chilean farmers were reluctant to convert to pelleted diets, the option of combination diets (i.e., macroalgae and formulated feed fed together) thus provided a pathway for abalone farmers to explore the use of formulated feeds without abandoning macroalgal dietary options entirely. Combination diets allow for an extended weaning period to facilitate dietary switch and there is a growing body of literature to suggest that combination diets provide superior production outcomes when compared to single diets, either macroalgal or formulated (Dlaza et al., 2008, Durazo-Beltrán et al., 2003, Naidoo et al., 2006). The effect of diet on the growth of abalone in commercial culture must however always be balanced against its effect on the quality and yield of the final product. Diet has been shown to affect the taste, texture, chemical composition and colour of abalone meat (Allen et al., 2006, Bewick et al., 2008, Chiou and Lai, 2002, Smit et al., 2007, Smit et al., 2010). While some Chilean abalone farmers have been using combination diets since as early as 2006 (Flores-Aguilar et al., 2007), there is a paucity of information regarding the performance of these diets and their subsequent effect on yields of the dominant Chilean abalone export product, namely canned abalone.
Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of fresh macroalgal, formulated pellet and two combination diets (low and high macroalgae supplementation with formulated diet) on production performance indicators and canning yields of juvenile abalone Haliotis rufescens in a culture system modified for the use of formulated feeds.
Section snippets
Culture system and experimental animals
The experimental culture system consisted of a 5000 l fiberglass raceway (10 m × 1 m × 0.5 m) with a single inflow of seawater (2500 l·h− 1) and formed part of the production infrastructure at the AWABI Abalone Production Centre, Universidad Católica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile (29°57′S; 71°21′W). Mean incoming water temperature at the facility over the experimental period was 13.3 ± 0.3 °C (range: 12.7–14.5 °C). Eight plastic mesh baskets (800 mm × 300 mm × 450 mm) were suspended in the raceway, with each divided
Growth and nutritional indices
Abalone weight increased significantly for all treatments over the 162 day period of the growth trial with growth rates described by the exponential curves as follows: (PD) y = 1.1497exp(0.0049x), r2 = 0.98, P < 0.05; (MD) y = 1.1163exp(0.0061x), r2 = 0.97, P < 0.05; (CMH) y = 1.1165exp(0.0064x), r2 = 0.99, P < 0.05 and (CML) y = 1.1492exp(0.0053x), r2 = 0.97, P < 0.05 (Fig. 2). The homogeneity of slope model showed significant differences between treatments in the slopes of natural log transformed weight data plotted
Discussion
The study demonstrated that for juvenile abalone H. rufescens fed macroalgal diets, up to 24% of the total feed intake on a dry weight basis could be substituted with formulated feed without negatively affecting growth rates. In addition, the inclusion of formulated feed into the diet of the abalone positively influenced canning yields.
The growth rates of 34–49 μm·day− 1 (initial shell length 20.6 mm) for abalone in this study fall within the range (15–198 μm·day− 1; initial shell length 5.9–46.7 mm)
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Franklin Pincheira, Rattcliff Ambler and Mauricio Lopez for their technical assistance with this research. This study was funded through financial and in-kind contributions from Marifeed (Pty) Ltd. and Universidad Católica del Norte. Mr Kemp was supported through scholarships from Rhodes University and the Skye Foundation and would like to acknowledge this support. Two anonymous reviewers are thanked for their valuable comments that greatly strengthened this
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2022, AquacultureCitation Excerpt :Therefore, a low protein content is likely to be the major reason for abalone's lower growth rate when feeding on a single macroalga (Dang et al., 2011). Previous studies have shown that feeding a formulated diet with fresh macroalgae in combination resulted in improved growth rate of abalone compared to a formulated diet only diet (Kemp et al., 2015). Haliotis midae has also shown that combination diets consisting of fresh macroalgae and formulated diet outperform the formulated diet alone (Dlaza et al., 2008).
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2016, Trends in Food Science and TechnologyCitation Excerpt :Most of the research on incorporating seaweeds into livestock diets as a source of protein has focused on aquatic livestock, especially commercial marine herbivores that feed naturally on seaweeds (abalone and sea urchins). Seaweeds can provide complete or partial protein nutrition for abalone (Bautista-Teruel, Millamena, & Fermin, 2001; Bilbao et al., 2012; Kemp, Britz, & Aguero, 2015; Mulvaney, Winberg, & Adams, 2013; Viera et al., 2011), sea urchins (Cook & Kelly, 2007) and shrimp (Cruz-Suarez, Tapia-Salazar, Nieto-Lopez, Guajardo-Barbosa, & Ricque-Marie, 2009; da Silva & Barbosa, 2009; Felix & Brindo, 2013). In contrast, the inclusion of seaweed in diets of commercial fish (herbivores or carnivores) at levels greater than 10% results in reduced growth and feed utilisation (Table 2), although there are some promising results for tilapia (Stadtlander et al., 2013).