How Insects can Improve Economics and Sustainability in Aquaculture

Insects are proving to be very efficient at converting low quality plant protein into valuable animal protein for aquaculture. And when you think about it, nature has been use insects as a food source for fish for millions of years… sometimes we just over complicate things. Insects alone are not the answer, however they are an important source of animals fats and proteins which helps efficient growth.

At BreedingInsects.com we are trialing our proprietary insect breeding methods into Aquaculture businesses and measuring the economics. We are also trialing other sustainable food sources such as aquatic and terrestrial plants, shrimp and feeder fish.

As we discuss below, insects have great potential to provide the best of both worlds by;

• Obtaining higher prices for your product (sustainability and organic certification)
• lower cost of production

And finally we pose the question, will seafood grow better if it is fed live foods (insects and aquatic plants) in conjunction with pellet food. We are looking for aquaculture partners to answer this question. Insects have the potential to improve the economics of Aquaculture by:

• Lower food costs by replacing fish pellets with insects fed from free waste foods (human or agriculture)
• Remove macro-nutrients from wastewater using aquatic plants which can be fed to fish or insect colonies
• Higher prices or marketability by attaining “Sustainable or Organic Accreditation”
• Produce Secondary Products and Income (Fertilizer, Fruit and Vegetables)
• Potential to Improve growth rates

Lower Food Costs by Replacing Fish Pellets with Insects Fed from Free Waste Foods (human or Agriculture)

A number of insect species such as Soldier Fly Larvae (SFL), crickets and woodies (cockroaches) are able to convert the following waste foods from residential and commercial premises into insect protein. Best of all most of these food sources are often free to obtain:

• Fruits, vegetables
• Agricultural waste
• Out of date processed foods
• Out of date unprocessed meats (SFL)

Recent research has found that SFL could replace as much as 50% of a fish diet before it starts to affect growth rates. In addition to other sustainable food sources we discuss below, this has the potential to reduce the costs of breeding insects as a aquaculture foods source.

Remove Macro-nutrients from Wastewater using Aquatic Plants which can be Fed to Fish or Insect Colonies

We are trialing using duckweed as a way to remove nutrients such as Nitrates from Aquaponic food systems. In other waste applications it is able to strip phosphorous also.  Not only is it able to remove nitrates from the water, it then converts this waste product into a very high protein food for both insects and fish. Recent research has found that duckweed could replace as much as 30% of a fish diet before it affected growth rates. Combine this with 50% for insects and you have a significant reduction in food costs.

Duckweed has an amazing ability to double in size every 24 hours in ideal conditions and can be produced in large quantities very easily. This capacity means it can expand or contract depending of the nutrient load and is effectively self-regulating. We use duckweed as a food source by drying it for later use (i.e. a winter food). Dry duck weed is very nutritious being around 40% protein, and is readily consumed by insects, fish or crayfish.

Higher Prices or Marketability by Attaining “Sustainable or Organic Accreditation”

Consumers more than ever are now looking at where their food is coming from, as well as price. Many retail stores are now using Sustainability and Organic certification to give them a marketing edge. This is increasingly resulting in many large retailers to switch to products that have sustainable and organic certification.

Using waste foods to produce insects may quality you for Sustainable certification. If the waste food comes from organic sources, then you may also quality for organic certification. This may allow you to get a higher price for your product or to access new markets.

Can Insects Improve the Growth Rates of Seafood?

Will Seafood have improved growth rates is they eat live foods such as insects, shrimps and aquatic plants? This is an important question…and we need your help to answer it. There is no doubt that fish pellets form the stable food source for commercial aquaculture, however we wonder what would happen if we incorporated live foods as well.

Fish Pellets have been specifically designed to provide the nutrients a fish needs, however they are a processed food source that is not naturally found in nature.  Live foods such as insects and aquatic plants, have a number of properties such as amino acids, microbes and proteins that may not be present in processed foods. Just as humans may be healthier if they switched from eating highly processed foods to more natural foods such as fruit, vegetables and meats, the same may be true for fish and other animals. We hope to find that we can grow more with less food inputs.