Europe: Seaweed worms could revolutionize fish farming diets

With the help of EMFF funding and a bit of Danish ingenuity, researchers are exploring innovative production techniques that could revolutionise aquaculture as we know it. Today, fish fry production is based almost exclusively on rotifiers (microscopic, aquatic invertebrates) and Artemia (tiny crustaceans), which need to be enriched with fish oils or algae before use. This process is not only costly and time-consuming but the nutritional quality of these types of feed is not ideal. Enter Aarhus University, where researchers, supported by EU funding, have discovered a way to utilise decomposing seaweed to mass produce marine enchytraeids, small worms naturally found in decaying seaweed. The project has shown that feeding with live enchytraeids can increase growth rates of juvenile fish (i.e. turbot, European flounder and common whitefish) by up to 200% and lower overall mortality. 3 good reasons to use these small enchytraeid worms With this project, researchers explored optimal ...