Cricket Meal in the Diet of Penaeus Vannamei Postlarvae in Raceways

Objective. To evaluate the effect of cricket meal on the growth and survival of Penaeus vannamei shrimp postlarvae in raceways. Materials and methods. For the present study, Acheta domesticus cricket meal (CM) was used at different replacement percentages (0, 20, 40, and 60%) of fish meal (FM). Experiments were carried out with a population of 60,000 postlarvae (PL), at the PL-16 stage, with an average weight of 0.007 g ± 0.001 g, which were distributed in three tanks per treatment. Postlarvae were stocked at a density of 10 PL/L of water. The raceway cultivation experiment lasted 21 days. Growth was monitored weekly by recording the weight of a sample of the population. The experimental feed was set at 50% protein, with a feeding rate of 12% of the biomass. Results. The average final weight of postlarvae from the 100% FM, 20, 40, and 60% CM treatments was 0.023±0.002 g; 0.018±0.003 g; 0.020±0.004 g, and 0.024±0.006 g, respectively, with significant differences (p<0.05) in favor of T4 (60% CM and 40% FM). Survival did not show significant differences between treatments, remaining at 90%. Conclusions. Cricket flour demonstrated efficiency due to the weight gain and survival of shrimp postlarvae at the raceway stage.