Shrimp meal is a good ingredient for fish because of its high crude protein content and digestibility (84.29% when feeding Macrobrachium rosenbergii and 89.68% when feeding Clarias batrachus) (Göhl, 1982). It is also reported to stimulate fish growth (Hertrampf et al., 2000).
Shrimp meal is used as a pigmentation agent. Farmed Red porgy (Pagrus pagrus) fed 16% shrimp meal in the diet achieved similar skin colour to wild Red porgy (Kalinowski et al., 2007). It gives a reddish pigmentation to rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) muscles.
In African catfish (Clarias gariepinus), chemically preserved shrimp heads were reported to profitably replace fish meal at 20% of the diet (Nwanna, 2003). Fermented shrimp meal included at 30% of the diet gave the best profit margins (Nwanna et al., 2004).
For sex-reversed red tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), shrimp meal can replace 50 to 100% fish meal without altering fish performances (Chimsung et al., 2006; Mansour, 1998 cited by El-Sayed, 2006; El-Sayed, 1998).
In blue Tilapia (Oreochromis aureus), inclusion of shrimp meal up to 6% of the diet had no negative impact on animal performance (Nwanna et al., 2000 cited by El-Sayed, 2006).
In Nile Tilapia, different forms of shrimp by-products are reported to give good results in fish feeding:
- Shrimp meal improved tilapia performance when replacing cassava leaf meal (Nieves, 1991).
- Shrimp head silage protein hydrolysate replaced up to 10-15% of the fishmeal and resulted in a better performance and feed conversion ratio. It was very palatable to Tilapia (Plascencia-Jatomea et al., 2002).
- Fresh water shrimp meal replaced 100% of the fish meal in Kenya, without altering Tilapia performances grown under semi-intensive conditions (Munguti et al., 2009).
In Humpback grouper (Cromileptes altivelis), shrimp meal can replace fish meal and can be included at up to 10% in the diet. However, higher levels compromised growth rate, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio (Rachmansyah et al., 2004).