The focus of this Japan-Thailand joint aquaculture research project is sustainable farming of these two native species.
pecies diversification in aquaculture is vital for a resilient and sustainable food system. Despite some level of species diversity, Thailand’s aquaculture production still primarily consists of the Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus and Pacific white shrimp Penaeus vannamei. Against this backdrop, the Thai Fish Project—a Japan-Thailand research collaboration titled “Utilisation of Thailand Local Genetic Resources to Develop Novel Farmed Fish for Global Market†was initiated in 2019.
This project aims to promote the domestication of two native aquatic species in Thailand – the Asian seabass Lates calcarifer and banana shrimp Penaeus merguiensis to advance sustainable aquaculture and food security. This six-year project is funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Research activities are jointly led by Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology (TUMSAT), Thailand’s Department of Fisheries, and several other academic institutes from both countries.
Addressing common challenges
The project has been conducting comprehensive research encompassing various topics to address common challenges in the aquaculture sector. After five years of work, some of the successful achievements include the development of feed formulations tailored for farming the Asian seabass and banana shrimp. The feeds were developed to promote sustainability, improve productivity and create added value within the industry.
Feed formulation for the Asian seabass
The project’s research on feed formulation for the Asian seabass focused on two major objectives:
1) to develop low-fishmeal and low-fish oil feed formulas and
2) to utilise a functional feed additive to enhance the level of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in the seabass.
Due to the increasingly unstable global supply of fishmeal and fish oil, which causes price volatility, combined with the resource-intensive production process of catching wild fish to feed farmed fish, it is important to reduce the reliance on fishmeal and fish oil for a sustainable development of aquaculture, particularly for carnivorous species. Therefore, researchers sought to identify suitable alternative protein and lipid sources for seabass and ensure the fish can maintain adequate growth performance.
Low fishmeal and fish oil diets
The project researchers have successfully developed a low-fishmeal and low-fish oil grow-out feed. In this formulation, up to 75% of fishmeal was replaced with various land-based protein sources. According to the research, the alternative protein sources suitable for the fish include soybean meal, Protam protein (bacterial meal), black soldier fly meal, and poultry by-product meal. Meanwhile, the alternative lipid sources are palm and flaxseed oil. These alternative sources have been proven to effectively replace fishmeal and fish oil without affecting the fish growth and biological performance.
In December 2023, the Thai Fish Project organised its first “Seabass Tasting Event†at Centara Grand Ladprao, Bangkok, Thailand. To disseminate the research outcomes, researchers served DHA-enriched seabass sashimi to around 200 participants, including representatives from Japanese business groups in Thailand, who later expressed their interest in sourcing the DHA-enriched Asian seabass. This reflected the market potential of this project.
Enhancing DHA content
To increase the appeal of Asian seabass for both production and consumption, the project focused on adding value to the fish by enhancing its DHA level. With several health benefits of DHA, this project output responded to the growing focus on health and wellness in seafood, directly addressing a crucial aspect of food security which is nutritional quality.
Therefore, after developing formulations with low fishmeal and fish oil diets, the researchers introduced dried Schizochytrium sp. (a marine microalgae species) as a feed additive to boost the DHA content of seabass. A subsequent study proved that feeding Asian seabass with the above-mentioned diets supplemented with 2% dried Schizochytrium sp. for 3 weeks effectively increased the DHA level by 20%, ensuring good growth and sensory properties.
Feed formulation for the banana shrimp
The banana shrimp is popular with consumers, but most of the shrimp available in the Thai market is wild- caught. This is partly due to the limited knowledge and know-how on banana shrimp farming within the country. To effectively promote its farming, the first step is a feed tailored for the species. Feed is key to successful aquaculture by directly affecting the animal’s growth and survival.
The primary goal of the project’s research on banana shrimp feed formulation was to develop an artificial feed suitable for each stage in banana shrimp farming. Another goal was to add value to fishery waste by using it as a feed ingredient. Other key research activities included developing a maturation diet for banana shrimp broodstock and utilising marine by-products, such as crab waste- derived chito oligosaccharide and fish hydrolysate, as functional feed ingredients.
While some aspects of the research on banana shrimp feed formulation is still ongoing, researchers have achieved some notable outcomes. One of these is the successful application of marine fish hydrolysate (MFH) in larval diets for banana shrimp.
MFH as an alternative to fishmeal
For some time now, protein hydrolysates have attracted attention as an alternative protein source in aquafeeds, which is as effective and perhaps even richer in other nutrients and is more digestible. The project’s researchers thus attempted to include protein hydrolysates obtained from fish waste into the diet formulation for the banana shrimp. According to research by Krongpong et al. (2021), MFH fermented with Lactobacillus plantarum TISTR No. 541 could replace up to 50% fishmeal and still lead to the highest survival rate and growth in terms of RNA/DNA ratio of the post larvae (PL3).
In this experiment, banana shrimp from mysis 1 (M1) to post larvae (PL3) were fed four diets; a typical shrimp larvae feed (T1), a fishmeal-based diet (T2), a diet with 25% MFH (T3) and a diet with 50% MFH (T4, Table 2).
Overall, the objective of utilising marine fish waste hydrolysate (MFH) as a feed ingredient for banana shrimp has proven to support high productivity farming while promoting the development of a sustainable industry. This approach also helps to reduce reliance on fishmeal and adds value to fish waste.
Next steps
Creating added value and promoting the wise and sustainable use of available resources in Asian seabass and banana shrimp farming through efforts such as utilising black soldier fly meal and fish waste as alternative protein sources for feed, are not the only research focuses of the Thai Fish Project. As mentioned in the introduction, the project covers a range of research topics, with the principal aim of developing a comprehensive aquaculture package for the two target species for Thai farmers.
Under the Thai Fish Project, research topics can be classified into four major outputs: genetic improvement, disease prevention, added value and wise use of resources (as discussed in detail in this article), and preservation of genetic diversity. Based on the project’s timeline, all outputs will be finalised and published by May 2025. More information and future updates can be found on the ‘Thai Fish Project’ Facebook page, (https://www.facebook.com/ thaifishproject/?locale=zh_HK&_rdr).
Reference
Krongpong, L., Buathong, T., Foowut, J., and Khongkhuem, N. (2021). Application of marine fish waste protein hydrolysate in banana shrimp (Fenneropanaeus merguiensis, De Man, 1888) larvae diet. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of Fisheries 2021 pp.178-190. https://anyflip.com/vsjzq/thud/basic
First Published in March/April 2025 AQUA Culture Asia Pacific
