Department of Aquaculture of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine will be involved in fish feeds activity in pond aquaculture in Ukraine

    It is known that the intensification of fish farming requires significant costs for feeding and quality improvement of feed. One such option may be the use of spirulina as a high-protein feed additive, which requires additional research on different species of fish and cryfish. The Department of Aquaculture of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine is trying to conduct joint research on this topic with a company from the Arab Republic of Egypt, as the cultivation of spirulina in a country with high solar activity is the most cost-effective.

    PhD students Volodymyr Shcherbyna within the framework of his dissertation plans to conduct research on growing crayfish using additional food in the form of spirulina

     In addition to spirulina, wheat, barley, rye, oats, corn, peas, soybeans are widely used for the preparation of feeds and feed mixtures. Making your own feeds from your own crops allows farmer to reduce the cost of feed in 2−3 times. The addition of extraction cake, oilcake, meal, bran, microbiological and some animal components can improve their quality significantly. Moreover, there is a possibility of the regulating of the nutritional value of feed mixtures, depending on the development of natural food in the ponds.

     Research with other components of feed is also conducted by the staff of the Department of Aquaculture, in particular, in the cultivation of African clary catfish. This series of experiments is planned by graduate students Yaroslav Berlinets and Bohdan Kovalenko.

     Some components of fish feeds could be used separately without mixing them with others ingredients. In this case farmer should consider their nutritional value and other characteristics.

     The main technological problems that will be solved by PhD students of Aquaculture Department in the research process are the development of diets and methods of introducing certain components into the feed

    The main reason of this research activity transforming was desire to reduce the price at the condition of semi-intensive or extensive pond aquaculture. There are some differences between feeds for fingerlings, broodstocks and table fish of catfish and cryfish.

    Typically, the feeding ratio under semi-intensive aquaculture is lower then it is indicated at the table or is not applicable at all and it depends heavily on fish density in the pond or tank with cryfish.

    Since about 80−90 % of Ukrainian fish production is produced in the extensive or low semi-intensive farms. Most of them are using raw cereals without any additional processing, But in the near future is expected to increase fish intensification, further increase in sturgeon, rainbow trout, African catfish and cryfish.

    Department of aquaculture NUBiP of Ukraine plans to start research in the future on other non-traditional feed components such as larvae or microbiological synthesis products.

Head of the Department
Vitaliy Bekh