Environment

Scientists take the fish out of fish food

Scientists take the fish out of fish food
Nile tilapia grow larger when fed microalgae in place of the usual fish oil
Nile tilapia grow larger when fed microalgae in place of the usual fish oil
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Nile tilapia grow larger when fed microalgae in place of the usual fish oil
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Nile tilapia grow larger when fed microalgae in place of the usual fish oil

It's one of the great environmental ironies of aquaculture – although the fish themselves come from farms, the food that they're raised on still contains wild-caught fish. A few years ago, however, a study showed that prawns could be fed microbes instead of fish byproducts. Now, a more recent study has concluded the same thing about tilapia, one of the most farmed fish in the world.

Ordinarily, fish meal and fish oil are included in commercial feeds in order to help fish grow large, and to do so quickly. When it comes to the oil, though, scientists from Dartmouth College have found that the marine microalgae Schizochytrium works even better.

In lab tests, juvenile Nile tilapia were given a food containing dried Schizochytrium in place of the usual fish oil. When compared to a control group being raised on regular food, they were found to exhibit higher weight gain and better food-to-growth conversion, plus their flesh was higher in healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Vegetable oils have previously been put forward as a fish oil alternative, although they don't result in such high omega-3 levels.

The scientists are now looking at replacing the fish meal as well, and are exploring cost-effective methods of raising microalgae for use in the aquaculture industry.

"Researchers have to find the ways to cut the high production cost of microalgae in order for such nutritionally enhanced tilapia to succeed in the market," says Prof. Anne Kapuscinski. "Towards this end, we are exploring ways to reduce production costs and the environmental footprint of microalgae production by using organic waste streams as a partial replacement for expensive inputs of inorganic fertilizer normally used to grow microalgae."

A paper on the research was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Source: Dartmouth College via EurekAlert

2 comments
2 comments
MikeW
Aquaponics, using Tilapia can provide not only a sustainable source of fish, vegetables, but even fish food via duckweed in a closed looped system which can reduce water usage by 90% needing only enough water to replace evaporation and that which is contained in the fish/vegetables.
Low tech, nice cost to benefit ratio, especially valuable in areas of limited rain would seem the make this a solution for a large portion of the earth's population.
NO system will work for everyone, every climate but it would be hard to get a bigger bang for the buck then Aquaponics.
Chizzy
@MikeW this is a great discovery because duckweed is not capable of being the only feed for tilapia. while tilapia are able to eat a vegetarian diet, the result is a product with low or even no omega 3. It would be interesting to know what the waste stream for the microalgae growth is. using the fish waste stream would be prohibited, as feeding a farmed animal something that come from the animal being farmed is generally discouraged as it promotes disease. human waste would be an ideal material if possible, it woukd put it then 2 removes from the source.