The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of high stocking densities on survival, growth and feed conversion rates of Litopenaeus vannamei shrimp, in final growout phase, in a Biofloc Technology (BFT) culture system, keeping the same water parameters for all treatments. Shrimps (11.96 ± 1.14 g) were stocked in microcosms (0.50/m² tanks), connected to a BFT system raceway. The study was carried out for 45 days. The shrimp were stocked at densities of 150, 300, 450 and 600 shrimp/m². Bioflocs were collected for analysis of proximate composition. The results were submitted to one-way ANOVA, and differences were compared by Tukey test (α = 0.05). In T300 and T450, growth and survival were not affected by high stocking densities. The highest biomass reached (T450) was 5.1kg/m² and the best feed conversion rate was 1.54 in T150. The results of this study indicate that stocking densities in the proposed system can be high, but not exceeding 450 shrimp/m². Furthermore, even maintaining the same water parameters for all treatments, there was a negative effect between density and shrimp growth, confirming that this effect is behavioral.
Biofloc Technology; growth parameters; shrimp growth out