Biofloc technology is an aquaculture technology, which utilizes a diverse biological microconsortiom to stabilize water quality and nutritionally recycle waste/uneaten feed. Biofloc aquaculture systems must not only stabley house the shrimp but also modulate toxic wastes, enhance shrimp nutrition and prohibit pathogens. Photosynthetic microorganisms operate as the base of the biofloc food chain. The green microalgae (Nannochloropsis, Tetraselmis etc.), golden microalgae (Tisochrysis, Pavlova etc.), diatoms (Chaetoceros, Thalassiosira etc.) and purple non-sulfur bacteria (Rhodopseudomonas, Rhodospirillum etc.) are examples of photosynthetic agents acting as the primary producers of the biofloc ecosystem. Their role within the functional biofloc microconsortium is to consume wastes such as ammonia, nitrite and sulfides which are acutely toxic to estuarine penaeid shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). They then convert these wastes into novel nutritional compounds such as proteins, functional enzymes, antioxidizing carotenoids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Their nutritious cells are sequentially grazed up the biofloc food chain (ciliates, rotifers, protozoa, polychaetes, copepods etc.), eventually bringing considerable nutrition back into the gut of the shrimp. Numerous studies have demonstrated that deploying such photosynthetic agents increase feed use efficiency, while stabilizing water quality and fortifying shrimp crops against pathogenic microbes. Refining biofloc micro consortiums will resolve many of the confounding economic and biological challenges awaiting the 21st Century American shrimp farmer.
