Introduction

Early man learned to rely on the sea for sustenance. Until modern times, the oceans seemed to offer an infinite bounty of fin fish and crustaceans. World population explosion, technological advances in fishing, and pollution have changed that view. What our forefathers found more than adequate to meet their needs now is over-fished and fighting to survive. Fortunately, the ingenuity of man has developed a way to supplement nature's limitations: aquaculture. Through managed cultivation in manmade ponds, tanks, raceways and contained in-sea enclosures, man is able to raise high densities of many species of marine animals. Without this supplement to normal fishing, retail prices would skyrocket and put nutritious seafood beyond the reach of many people.

Aquaculture, like agronomic practices, can produce high yields of foodstuff in relatively small areas. But, like land farming and animal husbandry, the concentration of growth presents special challenges not inherent in nature. Successful cultivation requires know-how, hard work and good luck. The aquaculturist is faced with a barrage of problems such as environmental changes, nutritional requirements, pollution and diseases. Producing a successful crop requires constant vigilance and educated decisions to overcome all the hurdles that present themselves. A miss on any one challenge may prevent a financially successful harvest.

Tools are available to help combat most of the problems faced in aquaculture. From engineering science come the skills to construct and maintain suitable facilities for aquaculture. From the study of animal growth, come techniques to permit high yield reproduction in captivity. From nutritional science, come well designed feeds to meet the needs of animals from spawning through to grow-out. From chemistry, come products to maintain healthy water conditions. Despite all these tools, problems still persist. In some countries, whole aquaculture industries have been devastated by pollution, disease, lack of adequate know-how or a combination of these.

The latest development in this young and rapidly growing industry is the application of biological science to solve aquaculture problems. This approach utilizes nature's own way of reducing pollution and minimizing disease problems. Treatment of aquaculture hatcheries and grow-out ponds with specially formulated products based on carefully selected, natural bacteria provides a natural way to eliminate pollution and to create a beneficial microbial environment that inhibits the development of harmful organisms. Many of the bacteria, which represent the very origins of life itself on our planet, have a powerful capacity to utilize pollutants such as ammonia, nitrates and nitrites in their normal metabolism. They literally "eat the stuff up!" Additionally, a thriving culture of the right natural bacteria provide a "probiotic" environment which suppresses the growth of harmful organisms. Through these two mechanisms, a healthier aquatic creature is raised that has greater vitality and immunity to disease. Epicore Networks Inc. is proud of its pioneering role in bringing biological technology to the aquaculture industry.

The Pond Pollution Problem

Modern shrimp farming started in the early 1980's with the development of effective artificial larval rearing techniques. Since that time, shrimp farming has shifted from extensive to semi-intensive to intensive cultivation. Intensive cultivation techniques include,

• increased stocking density (typically 250,000 to 500,000 Post Larvae per hectare)
• heavy reliance on hatchery raised larvae
• increased reliance on artificial feeds
• use of mechanical aeration
• increased water exchange

The more intensive the cultivation, the greater the need for effective pond environment management. Unfortunately, intensification has not always been associated with an improvement in management techniques. This has led to environmental deterioration both within the pond and in the surrounding areas. Pollution arises for many reasons and all shrimp culture systems have the potential to cause pollution. The potential increases the higher the level of intensification. Some reasons for pollution are:

1. high stocking densities
2. high usage of artificial feeds
3. excessive densities of adjacent ponds in coastal areas
4. poor or no pond effluent water treatment
5. high rates of water exchange
6. ineffective pond cleaning between cycles
7. high rates of shrimp excretion
8. increased usage of drugs and other polluting chemicals

Many of the residues from shrimp culture accumulate on the pond bottom. This accumulation has several detrimental effects on the shrimp and the pond operation. This sediment is anoxic, or lacking in oxygen, and contains toxic substances such as ammonia, nitrite, and hydrogen sulfide. Shrimp tend to avoid areas covered in such sediment and congregate in cleaner areas. Congregation reduces the area for feeding, which increases the competition for food and also increases the effective stocking density. If the whole pond bottom is covered by toxic sediment, the shrimp are forced to live on it. In this environment, the shrimp will suffer. A large amount of toxic sediment will also decrease water quality.

Poor quality pond bottoms and water cause short and long term effects on shrimp. The short term effect is manifest as mass mortalities. The longer term effect is increased stress, which causes reduced feeding and growth rates (with lower feed conversion ratio and its attendant cost) and greater susceptibility to infectious diseases such as Vibriosis and viruses. Many of the disease problems encountered on shrimp farms - and often blamed for their demise - originate from poor sediment quality.

Outside the farm, wastes from poorly managed ponds can seriously damage the coastal ecosystem. This not only is detrimental to the environment, but also reduces the value of coastal resources, including shrimp farms. Recycling pond wastes or overloading the local ecosystem's ability to recondition polluted water will adversely affect adjacent shrimp pond and other coastal operations.

The use of good pond management along with biological aquaculture products from Epicore will minimize the pollution in shrimp ponds.

Problems in Shrimp Hatcheries

Problems of water pollution, disease and poor nutrition plague larval hatchery operations as they do grow-out ponds. Within the hatchery tanks used for rearing larvae, there is an intimate association between the health, growth and survival on the one hand and nutrition, the environment and disease causing organisms on the other. In most cases, where inadequate nutrition is supplied to the larvae, feed is left uneaten leading to deterioration in environmental quality and to the proliferation of pathogenic organisms. This in turn leads to a reduction in the health of the larvae, disease and ultimately death. Because these problems are interrelated, an integrated solution is required: the "three in one" Epicore Hatchery System.

An important component of the larval and early post-larval diet is algae. The quality of this dietary component has a significant effect on larvae production. EPIZYM-AGP Algae Growth Promoter is the first step in the Epicore system. It is a stimulant for producing high levels of nutritious marine algae, rotifers and other zooplankton used for feeding larvae.

The next step is to improve larval disease resistance by creating a probiotic environment. The microorganisms in EPICIN Biological Aquaculture Treatment establish a strong natural bacterial culture in the hatchery water, which suppresses the growth of harmful bacteria such as luminescent Vibrio sp. Also, the microbes in EPICIN are capable of excreting natural bacteriostats, called bactocillins, which repel harmful bacteria.

The EPIFEED family of unique liquid larval hatchery feeds help solve hatchery nutrition and pollution problems at the source. EPIFEED Larval Hatchery Feeds are composed of the finest quality, highly palatable and easily digestible ingredients that are constantly available to larvae, promoting consumption and assimilation of the nutrients and hence larval growth and survival. The unique emulsion form of these products provides neutrally buoyant particles that remain suspended in the water column. They are formulated to minimize leaching of nutrients so, with their superior suspendability properties, reduce the build up of toxic nutrients and pathogens in the tank. The result is the economical production of large quantities of high-health larvae with the potential to generate large profits once transferred to the culture ponds.

Epicore Products for Aquaculture

Epicore products for aquaculture fit into three categories: products to improve growing water conditions, products to enhance disease resistance and products to improve animal nutrition, as described below:

EPICIN Biological Aquaculture Treatment is a natural microbial ecosystem for detoxifying aquaculture grow-out ponds and hatcheries. It eliminates water-fouling waste products such as ammonia and nitrites, thereby providing a healthier environment for marine animal growth. It also improves animal health and disease resistance by creating a probiotic environment.

EPICIN-1000 Biological Inoculant is a special version of regular EPICIN designed for use in live seafood contained systems, such as retail display tanks and recreational aquaria.

EPIZYM-BGM Growth Medium reduces EPICIN treatment rates and, therefore, costs by growing-up additional microorganism cells at pond side. EPIZYM-BGM is a specially designed growth media to facilitate this grow-up of EPICIN at pond-side in a relatively short four hour period.

EPICIN-3W is the ultimate extension of Epicore's pond-side grow-up technology. It is formulated to give the maximum increase in EPICIN cells in a 24 hour grow-up. Unlike BGM, this product contains not only grow-up media but also the required amount of EPICIN.

EPIZYM-AGP Algae Growth Promoter provides specially formulated micro-nutrients and growth stimulants to be used with primary nutrients to promote the cultivation of algae.

EPIZYM-AGP COMPLETE Algae Growth Media is an equilibrated cellular stimulant for producing high levels of nutritious marine algae, rotifers and other zooplankton used for feeding shrimp and other marine animals. EPIZYM-AGP COMPLETE contains all the primary nutrients, vitamins and chelated trace minerals necessary for algae growth. Additionally it contains specially selected beneficial physiologic growth stimulants. Formulated as an easy to use, concentrated liquid it completely replaces the traditional Guillard’s f/2 media and offers economical advantages

EPIZYM-VMC Vitamin, Mineral Concentrate is a powdered feed supplement for grow-out feeds. Marine animals, being heterotrophs, need to be fed a balanced diet of protein, fats, carbohydrate and micro-nutrients. While most commercial feeds contain these ingredients, all too many miss some essential micro-nutrients. Either they are simply not included in the formulation or they are degraded during high temperature feed processing. EPIZYM-VMC vitamin-mineral concentrate rectifies this deficiency for pelletized feeds by supplementing the nutritional value of the base feed formulation.

EPIZYM-VMCE is an equilibrated vitamin-mineral concentrate for enhancing aquatic animal feed. EPIZYM-VMCE is manufactured in a unique emulsion form that facilitates application to aquaculture feeds and improves leaching resistance.

EPIFEED Liquid Larval Hatchery Feed products are a major advancement in the feeding of larvae. Their unique emulsion form provides neutrally buoyant particles that remain suspended in the water column and are more available to larvae. EPIFEED products come in three different sizes to accommodate various aquatic species. They are formulated to provide an optimal balance of nutrients, including essential fatty acids. Their formulation minimizes leaching of nutrients reducing the build-up of toxic nutrients and pathogens in the tank. Tests run at the Oceanic Institute in Hawaii showed superior survival and stress resistance using the EPIFEED diet with reduced Artemia.

EPIFEED-MBF Shrimp Maturation Diet is a major advancement in the feeding of adult shrimp and other marine animals. EPIFEED-MBF is formulated to be a complete diet for adult shrimp and marine animals. It is prepared with the best quality of marine and plant proteins, olefinic lipids, phospholipids, carbohydrates, vitamins and micronutrients and is processed at low temperature to minimize degradation of delicate essential nutrients and micronutrients. It offers advantages of biosecurity, nutrition, cost and reproduction performance compared to fresh diets.

EPIFEED-ENRICH Feed Supplement is a water dilutable source of essential Omega-3 fatty acids intended for use as a supplement to live and prepared aquaculture feeds. Omega-3 olefinic lipids are important nutritional components to many aquaculture species. EPIFEED-ENRICH is a stabilized and fortified emulsion form of Omega-3 lipids designed for easy application via Artemia or rotifer enrichment or absorption onto dry feeds.

THE SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL

Achieve Better Shrimp Yields and Quality Through:

• Increased Disease Resistance
• Better Water Quality
• Improved Nutrition

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