Aquaculture shrimp production is the most reliable and fastest growing food production sector to meet the challenges of global population growth. Probiotics play a significant role in shrimp farming to improve animal health, productivity and sustainability. Our goal is to innovate and integrate new generations of biological products and protocols in order to ensure sustainable aquaculture farming with bio-security, food safety, reliability, and profitability.

BioZ Probiotics

Probiotics are defined as live microbial adjunct which has significant beneficial effect on improving host ecosystem, efficient use of feed, enhancing host immunity towards disease or reducing toxic compounds like ammonia, nitrite, H2S etc. These bacteria could produce digestive enzymes and essential growth nutrients such as amino acids and vitamins from organic waste materials for their growth. Probiotic bacteria is known to improve sustainability, better survival and productivity. Some species of Bacillus, Lactobacillus and Streptococcus and others produce metabolites capable of inhibiting various pathogens like Vibrio sp and other gram negative organisms at all stages of shrimp farming.

Probiotic can be given as feed supplement or as direct application to pond water. As feed supplement, they offer superior benefits by colonizing the shrimp digestive tract that improve health and habitat of aqua livestock. The gastrointestinal micro biota of shrimp and prawn are peculiarly dependent on the external environment, due to the water flow passing through the digestive tract. Most bacterial cells are transient in the gut, with continuous intrusion of microbes coming from water and food. Therefore, it is essential to maintain a proper confluence of beneficial micro biota in the shrimp gut and pond ecosystem to maintain immunity, healthy survival and productivity of shrimp.

Organic bottom sludge reduction

Organic sludge includes uneaten feed, fecal particles, dead algae and other organic residues which settle down to the pond bottom creating high biological oxygen demand ( BOD ). Reduction of the bottom sludge is essential to prevent accumulation of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and H2S which are toxic to shrimp health. Oxygen supply using mechanical aeration is essential.

BioZ offers a combination of probiotics, enzymes and supplements designed to break down these organic wastes : protein, lipids, carbohydrates like starch, cellulose, chitin, pectin and release valuable nutrients for their growth. BioZ probiotics helps to keep the pond water healthy, promotes biofloc formation, inhibit the pathogenic population and enhance productivity.

Gut Health and inhibition of pathogens

Micro flora which lives in the intestine play a major role in digesting feed by releasing enzymes such as amylase, protease, lipase, Cellulase etc. in substantial quantities along vitamins. This helps in breaking down the complex substances into simple form, which can be absorbed by the body easily. BioZ offers probiotic blends of Bacillus, Lactobacillus, Streptococcus and others in an inert carrier which can colonize in the gastrointestinal tract. The bacterial consortium can metabolize organic compounds, producing acids and antimicrobial products that prevent the growth of pathogenic bacteria. They synthesize essential vitamins and enzymes required for healthy growth of shrimp.

Ammonia Reduction

Shrimp is fed by natural and formulated feed containing protein in the range of 30-40 percent. Shrimp and fish use this protein as a great source of energy by oxidizing it and 75 % of this protein is metabolized and released as ammonium and ammonia. These toxic materials are excreted through the gills to the surrounding water. Other sources of total ammonium nitrogen ( TAN ) in the pond is the decomposition of organic bottom sludge under low oxygen conditions. Removal of ammonia and NO2 are essential because they are highly toxic to shrimp. BioZ offers special probiotic blends to reduce the nitrogenous wastes and toxicity of ammonia for successful aquaculture.

Algae control

A common microbial community coexisting with shrimp is the photosynthetic algae and bacteria suspended in the pond water as phytoplankton. They are autotrophic, producing their own food by photosynthesis. Algae assimilate CO2 and H2O to produce simple sugars, s source of chemical energy. However, protein is an essential component of algal cells and it is produced from assimilated sugars and the available nitrogen source-TAN. Thus algae bloom is initiated by the presence of excess TAN in pond water. Algae growth and synthesis of sugars and proteins depend on sunlight and algae do not remove TAN during night. Moreover, algal crash may happen during cloudy and rainy days stressing shrimp from high TAN and low oxygen. BioZ offers probiotic blends that are reliable round the clock, night time, rainy and cloudy days and keep the shrimp pond ecosystem healthy without algae. BioZ bacteria use carbon cycle to remove nitrogenous compounds from pond water and efficiently control algae bloom.

Less water exchange and stable oxygen

BioZ offers a special blend of probiotics that stabilizes oxygen levels in pond ecosystem by reducing BOD and COD levels and stabilizes bloom conditions. This is important in intensive shrimp farming for better productivity and sustainability.

Biofloc systems

Biofloc is a unique ecosystem of rich and potent conglomerates of microbes, algae, protozoa and others, together with dead organic detritus particles. The BFT concept became a trend and a necessity to limit water exchange. Previously, high rate of water exchange was required to control water quality and production in intensive shrimp farming. However, this trend abruptly reached unacceptable status because of scarcity of water, pollution caused in the waterways by discharging untreated water, increasing outbreaks of viral diseases in shrimp population due to frequent exchange of polluted water( lack of biosecurity ), and serious concern about sustainability and food safety. When water exchange was limited , organic matter in water is built up which supported the development of heterotrophic microbial community. These microbes digested the organic substrates to get their nutrients and energy for their growth. In fact, selection of high performing and stable bacteria like in BioZ probiotics, can produce abundance of cell biomass with aeration, right balance of C:N concentration, much less water exchange, and dominate the pond ecosystem. These bacterial biomass combines with phytoplankton, protozoan and detritus and serve as an excellent source of nutrition for shrimp estimated to replace 25% of feed.

BioZ probiotics are exceptional to develop and sustain biofloc in shrimp pond ecosystem. This has exceptional merit in intensive and semi-intensive farms especially green houses with zero water exchange, higher rate of feeding regiment and aeration where BioZ organisms can digest the organic matter efficiently using abundance of extracellular enzymes. The biofloc particles then become a high protein feed supplement closer to 25-30 % of the total feed / day.