SEAFDEC/AQD Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center | Aquaculture Department
Black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) is one of the most prized seafood species in the Philippines and across Asia, but disease outbreaks, poor water quality, and high production costs have long plagued farmers.
One solution long considered by researchers and farmers to overcome these challenges is the use of โbioflocโ technology. What is this?
When shrimp eat protein-rich feed, they excrete ammonia as a waste product. Ammonia buildup is toxic to shrimp so, in a conventional system, you flush it out with water changes. But biofloc technology puts beneficial microorganisms to work. Fed by a carbon source, these microbes consume the ammonia and convert the waste into nutritious particles that shrimp can eat, effectively recycling waste into food.
While this sounds like an ideal setup, the technical knowhow required to maintain a biofloc culture can be challenging, and farmers find it easier to just farm shrimp in ponds like they always have. However, researchers continue to build the case for biofloc technology and develop species-specific guidance to lower the barriers to commercial adoption.
At SEAFDEC/AQD, Researcher Erish Estante-Superio tested the impact of biofloc technology and different carbon sources (wheat flour and molasses) on the intensive indoor nursery culture of black tiger shrimp. Her study provides at least five reasons farmers should roll up their sleeves and seriously consider biofloc technology.
- More shrimp survived. After 90 days survival rates in biofloc treatments โ one using molasses, the other wheat flour โ reached around 72โ74% versus only 55% in the conventional tanks which used flow-through clear water systems. In intensive nursery shrimp farming, this gap translates to more shrimp and potentially more profit.
- Shrimp grew bigger. Shrimp raised in biofloc tanks, particularly those using wheat flour as carbon source, grew significantly heavier. Combined with higher survival rates, the biofloc treatments yielded 3.3โ3.5 kg of shrimp compared to only 2.4 kg in the conventional tanks.
- Feed was converted to shrimp mass more efficiently. All experimental tanks were provided formulated feed at equal feeding rates. However, biofloc treatments produced more shrimp mass for every unit weight of feed. This is because, apart from the feed, the biofloc shrimp also consumed the nutritious floc particles (clumps of bacteria and organic matter) which were absent in conventional tanks.
- Far less water was used. The conventional tanks used 23 to 31 times more
water than the biofloc tanks over the course of the study. Because biofloc systems run on zero water exchange, relying on bacteria to process waste instead of flushing it out, they are dramatically more water efficient.
- Shrimp showed better resistance against a deadly disease. When shrimp were intentionally exposed to Vibrio parahaemolyticus, the bacterium behind Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Disease (AHPND), those kept in biofloc water survived significantly longer than those in regular water. Additionally, shrimp that were raised in biofloc but then moved to clear water before the challenge, lost much of their protection. The biofloc environment appeared to offer a layer of protection, likely because it stimulates the shrimp’s immune defenses and may influence how the pathogen behaves.
Taken together, these findings make a strong case for pursuing indoor nursery biofloc systems for intensive tiger shrimp farming to produce more shrimp, with less water, and with better odds against disease.
For details on this study by Estante-Superio and her co-authors, read the article “The impact of indoor biofloc-based system on water quality, growth, and disease resistance of black tiger shrimp,” published in the journal Aquacultural Engineering on May 2025. You may request for a copy of the article here: https://repository.seafdec.
