Miguel Jover

• Polytechnic University of Valencia

Demand for organic aquaculture is rising, but its viability will depend on the availability of economically viable raw materials to formulate organic diets. In the current work, organic diets were formulated based on different alternative protein sources distinguished by their ecological origin, insect meal (IN), seabass by-products (SB) and Ibe...

The use of organic ingredients as a source of protein in aquaculture diets has gained significant attention due to the growing demand for organic seafood products. This study aimed to evaluate the potential for the use of organic ingredients as protein sources in the diet of juvenile organic seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax). A total of 486 juvenile s...

This study examined how eco-organic feed affects the growth performance, nutrient efficiency, feed utilisation, and body composition of gilthead seabream. Six different diets were tested, including a control diet (CONT) without organic ingredients and four diets with 100% organic ingredients: trout (TRO), seabass (SBS), poultry (POU), and mix (MIX)...

A 120-day experiment investigated the new organic raw materials for Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) feeding on growth, nutritional parameters, digestibility, and histology. An organic control diet (CON) and three diets with 100% organic raw materials-the rest of rainbow trout, visceral Iberian pig, and insects as a protein source (TRO, IBE, and I...

Feeding strategies have a significant impact on growth and water quality in shrimp farming. Feed management also affects shrimp health, survival, and yields. All these factors contribute to production cost-effectiveness and the commercial shrimp industry sustainability. The effect of feeding frequency and two aquafeed cooking processes (extrusion a...

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary fish oil replacement with a mixture of vegetable oils and probiotic supplementation on plasma biochemical parameters, oxidative stress, and antioxidant ability of Seriola dumerili. Specimens with an initial weight of 175 g were used. Four feeds were formulated with 0% (FO-100), 7...

The fishmeal replacement by vegetable meals or other alternative sources, without affecting fish performance and productivity, is one of the principal challenges in aquaculture. The use of hydrolyzed porcine mucosa (HPM) and nucleotide (NT) concentrates, as feed additives in gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.) non-fishmeal diets was assessed in or...

Feeding strategies have a significant impact on growth and water quality in shrimp farming. Feed management also affects health, survival, and shrimp yields. All these factors contribute to production cost-effectiveness and commercial shrimp industry sustainability. The effect of feeding frequency and two aquafeed cooking processes (extrusion and p...

Gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) was raised in six individual recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) whose biofilters’ performance was analyzed. Fish were fed with three different diets (a control diet, a fishmeal-based diet (FM), and a plant meal-based diet (VM)) and with three different feeding strategies (manual feeding to apparent satiation,...

The aquaculture of carnivorous fish is in continuous expansion, which leads to the need to reduce the dependence on fishmeal (FM). Plant proteins (PP) represent a suitable protein alternative to FM and are increasingly used in fish feed. However, PP may lead to stunted growth and enteritis. In the current study, the effect of high FM substitution b...

Seabass is one of the leading aquaculture species in Europe. Sensory analysis is essential for new product development. This research focused on establishing and differentiating the opinion of consumers about seabass quality obtained with organic feeding. Fish were fed for 196 days with four treatments (a control diet with 30% fishmeal and three di...

Research was carried out into the effect of partial and total fishmeal (FM) replacement by a vegetable and animal proteins blend, as well as the inclusion of microalgae in diets for gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.). Fish of 64 g on initial weight were fed until apparent satiation for 88 days. The control diet (FM100) contained FM as the main pr...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of fish meal replacement with a mixture of plant, and animal protein supplemented with a commercial nucleotide NucleoforceFish™, on growth, feed utilization, whole-body composition, biometric indices; liver mitochondrial enzyme activities, selected gene expression and influence on the gut micro...

An 84-day trial was performed to assess the use of alternative protein sources in Seriola dumerili. Three diets were used, FM100 diet, as a control diet without fishmeal substitution, and FM66 and FM33 diets with a fishmeal replacement of 330 g/kg and 660 g/kg, respectively. At the end of experiment, fish fed the FM66 diet showed the no differences...

Fish (175 g of initial weight) were fed in triplicated groups with four diets formulated by 0% (FO 100), 75% (FO 25) and 100% (with and without probiotics, FO 0 and FO 0+) of fish oil replacement consisting of a mixture of linseed, sunflower and palm oils. After 109 days, growth and nutritional parameters were not affected by the treatment; however...

The interaction between diet and intestinal health has been widely discussed, although in vivo approaches have reported limitations. The intestine explant culture system developed provides an advantage since it reduces the number of experimental fish and increases the time of incubation compared to similar methods, becoming a valuable tool in the s...

En el presente trabajo se muestra una experiencia de la aplicación del Aprendizaje Basada en proyectos en la titulación del Master interuniversitario de Acuicultura de la Universitat Politécnica de València. El ABPr se centró en el desarrollo de un proyecto de una piscifactoría, en el cual los alumnos pudieran adquirir una visión en conjunto de las...

The digestive tract, particularly the intestine, represents one of the main sites of interactions with the environment, playing the gut mucosa a crucial role in the digestion and absorption of nutrients, and in the immune defence. Previous researches have proven that the fishmeal replacement by plant sources could have an impact on the intestinal s...

The study aimed to evaluate how replacing different proportions of fish oil (FO) with vegetable oils (VO) in the diet of Mediterranean yellowtail, Seriola dumerili (Risso, 1810), affects the fatty acids (FA) signature, i.e.; overall FA profile, in different tissues. A total of 225 Mediterranean yellowtail juveniles (initial live weight: 176 ± 3.62...

In recirculating aquaculture systems, performance of nitrifying biofilters for total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) removal from the culture water and thus minimizing eutrophication depends on numerous elements of design. In this article the combined effect of three of these process parameters (temperature, hydraulic loading and TAN load) is evaluated. Amm...

This study aimed to investigate how the freshness before frozen storage affect the quality and sensory characteristics of seabream in different commercial presentations and to correlate the findings with free amino acids composition. The fish were slaughtered, allocated to three processing treatments (whole, gutted and filleted) and stored at refri...

The apparent digestibility coefficients (ADCs) of dry matter, crude protein, crude lipid, and amino acids in fish, krill, squid, meat, defatted krill, soybean, wheat gluten, wheat, camilina, pea, sunflower, and fava bean meals were determined for juvenile Seriola dumerili. The results showed that the ADC of dry matter for yellowtail ranged from 57....

The present study compares a control diet to four experimental diets, in which two red beet (14% and 28%) and two betaine levels (0.9% and 1.63%) were incorporated in rainbow trout diets according to a factorial design. The effects of the inclusion of different red beet and betaine concentrations on fatty acid (FA) profile, lipid peroxidation, and...

Purpose Studying the effect of citrus pulp silage in the growth performance, amino acid retention of sharpsnout sea bream juveniles. Methods Citrus pulp is an energy and protein source that has been used to replace wheat meal in Diplodus puntazzo fingerlings; 96 fish of 21.5 ± 0.67 g were nourished with two experimental diets for 105 days. The con...

The present study evaluates the effect of dietary barley, based on its potential stress-relieving properties, on rainbow trout under acute stress challenge (hypoxia and crowding) and their recovery. Diets were formulated containing increasing barley concentrations (0, 4, 8, 16, 32%). Cortisol on plasma and fin, glucose and lactate plasma levels and...

Background: In order to ensure sustainability of aquaculture production of carnivourous fish species such as the gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata, L.), the impact of the inclusion of alternative protein sources to fishmeal, including plants, has been assessed. With the aim of evaluating long-term effects of vegetable diets on growth and intestinal...

Trout sport fishing is an interesting activity for developing rural areas, but sustainability of natural populations must be guaranteed by an optimum fishery management. Two populations of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mikiss) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) coexist in Palancia River, which flows in the south of Castellon province. Since 2001, electri...

The search for new sustainable aquafeeds for the species with greater economic importance, such as the gilthead sea bream in Europe, is one of the main challenges in the aquaculture sector. The present work tested fishmeal replacement by a mixture of plant meals at different levels, as well as the use of marine by-products with attractant propertie...

In this work, a seasonal quantile regression growth model for the gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata L) based on an aggregation of the quantile TGC models with exponent 1/3 and 2/3, named the “Quantile TGC-Mixed Model”, is presented. This model generalizes the proposal of Mayer, Estruch and Jover (Aquaculture, 358-359, 2012, 6) in the sense that the...

Barley concentrations ranging from 0 to 32% (0B, 40B, 80B, 160B, and 319B) were incorporated into rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum) diets. The experiment started with an initial average fish weight of 127.72 ± 5.65 g and finished when they reached commercial weight (final weight between 312 and 330 g) after 84 days. The inclusion of barl...

The present study was conducted to determine the effect of soybean oil on the performance and liver histology in Sharpsnout seabream (Diplodus puntazzo) (initial body mass 35 g). Four experimental diets were formulated containing 0%, 25%, 50%, and 75% of soybean oil substituting fish oil. Fish were fed for 84 days. Increasing the level of soybean o...

The effect of different weekly feeding frequencies on Nile tilapia fingerlings of 2.02 g, was determined during 12 weeks. This was done by feeding the fish 7 days/week, 6 days/week or 5 days/week. After this restriction feeding period, all fish were fed as the control group (7 days/week) during 26 days to study the capability of the fish to compens...

The energy and protein requirements for gilthead sea bream were studied until commercial weight. Gilthead sea bream with different body weights (from 24 to 422 g) were fed from starvation to apparent satiation, studying protein and energy in the interval of 21–25 °C. Energy recovery (ER) was expressed in relation to the digestible energy intake (DE...

Three diets have been formulated to evaluate the effect of prebiotec (dry hydrolyzed intestinal mucosa) by supplementation in plant protein diets of gilt-head sea bream of 273g (average initial weight) for 60 days. The diets manufactured to be isonitrogenous (47% crude Protein, CP) and isolipidic (17% crude Lipid, CL) , two diets of them with total...

La asignatura de “Nutricion de especies acuicolas” se imparte de forma presencial en el Master Interuniversitario de Acuicultura y formato on-line en el Curso de Especialista universitario en Acuicultura. Aunque el tipo de evaluacion, asi como los porcentajes que representan en la nota final son similares en ambas modalidades, no es el numero de ac...

This study evaluated liver and gut alterations of gilthead sea bream, Sparus aurata L., fed diets in which fish meal was substituted by a mixture (M) of pea protein concentrate (PPC) and rice protein concentrate (RPC). Histological studies were conducted to evaluate the possible changes produced by four experimental isolipidic (18%) and isoproteic...

The present work studies the growth and body composition of 18 Octopus vulgaris (6 per treatment) fed two extruded diets, namely FMS and 3FMS, based on different fish and squid meal ratios (1:1, and 3:1 respectively). The diets are compared with a control diet based on crab (Carcinus mediterraneus) and bogue (Boops boops). The growing tests were co...

Modelling growth as a function of feeding rate (FR) could be one of the most important tools for fish farms, because this knowledge allows growth to be maximized, or the feed conversion ratio (FCR) to be minimized, thereby improving profits. All growth models should include the three principal variables involved in growth: initial body weight, temp...

The economic profitability of fish meal replacement by soybean meal and pea‐rice concentrate mixture, was analysed considering the economic conversion ratio (ECR) and the economic profit index (EPIst) as a proposal for evaluating the economic profitability in diets for sea bream. The optimal fish meal levels for minimizing the ECR were 33% (when so...

Four isonitrogenous (42% crude protein) and isolipidic (20%) diets were formulated using four different percentages of pork fat to substitute fish oil at 0, 25, 50 and 75% to evaluate the performance, body composition, fatty acids and liver histology of sharpsnout sea bream juveniles. One hundred and twenty fish (average weight 33.4±2.9g) were rand...

Summary The suitability of defatted soybean meal as a substitute for fishmeal was assessed in juvenile (25 g, average) tench, Tinca tinca, by feeding them diets containing 25 (S25), 37.5 (S37.5) and 50% (S50) soybean meal for 150 days. Soybean meal inclusion increased the relationship between essential and non-essential amino acids. Fish were hand-...

Background. Our previous study demonstrated that sharpsnout seabream, Diplodus puntazzo (Walbaum, 1792), can be fed with up to 34.8% sunflower meal (SFM), with excellent results in growth parameters and feed efficiency. The aim of the current study was to test the replacement of fish meal with SFM in the diet formulation for sharpsnout seabream and...

The suitability of sunflower meal (SFM) as a substitute for fish meal was evaluated in sharpsnout sea bream fingerlings (14 g) by feeding diets in which 0, 10, 20 or 30% of crude protein provided by fish meal was substituted with SFM. The experiment lasted 125 days and survival at the end of the experiment was 95%. The effect of SFM level on growth...

Partial replacement of fish meal by a vegetable mixture (Pea Protein Concentrate (PPC) and Rice Protein Concentrate (RPC)) was carried out in on-growing gilthead seabream (initial average weight 174 g). The experimental diets were isoproteic (48% CP) and isolipidic (18%) with 0, 30, 60 and 90% of fish meal substitution, supplemented with Methionine...

European eel males can be artificially matured (1.5 IU hCG/g fish), but the regulatory mechanisms of their reproductive development are practically unknown. Spermatogenic stages (S1–S6), biometric characters [eye index (EI), gonadosomatic index (GSI), hepatosomatic index (HSI)] and sperm quality parameters (motility, viability and head spermatozoa...

Background. The aim of this work was to study the growth of juvenile dentex fed on cooking-extruded diets, determine the level of substitution of fishmeal by soybean meal may be without affecting the growth in this species and its digestibility.Materials and Methods. The availability of defatted soybean meal as a substitute for fish meal was evalua...

Two experiments were performed to stimulate maturation in European eel females. In the first, four proto- cols were tested to induce ovulation. in the second experiment maturation was attempted with several hormonal treat- ments.

european eels, Anguilla anguilla, do not mature in captivity, so the development of methods for its repro - duction is necessary in order to face the demands for elvers from eel farms and to reduce the pressure on natural popula- tions. our group has developed several techniques in the attempt to improve the control of reproduction in this species.

Six isonitrogenous [450 g kg−1 crude protein (CP)] and isoenergetic diets (23 kJ g−1) with six levels of defatted soybean meal inclusion (0, 132, 263, 395, 526 and 658 g kg−1) in substitution of fish meal were evaluated in gilthead sea bream of 242 g initial weight for 134 days. Fish fed diets S0, S13, S26 and S39 had a similar live weight (422, 42...

Yellowtails weighing 490 g were fed five experimental diets with different protein/energy ratios, 24.6, 26.9, 28.9, 31.8 and 35.8 g MJ−1, for 152 days. The energy content was similar in all the diets and the protein and lipid levels were 40/26, 45/26, 50/18, 50/26 and 55/18 %CP/%CL respectively. The final weight and SGR were lower in fish fed diets...

Two parallel experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of partial substitution of fish meal by two different animal protein sources, blood meal (B) and haemoglobin meal (H) at 0, 50 and 100 g kg−1 of level inclusion in diets for gilthead sea bream, considering a long feeding period for juveniles (Trial 1) and a short feeding period (Trial 2...

The growth of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) has been studied considering five multiple exponential regression models using data from 20 lots of gilthead sea bream growing in 20 marine cages from a Mediterranean commercial fish farm. The final weight (Wf) of fish was predicted in relation to the initial weight (Wi), time (n) and temperature (T)...

The utilisation of sunflower meal as a substitute for fish meal was evaluated in juvenile (44 g ± 4.6 on average) gilthead sea bream fed diets containing four levels of sunflower meal (0, 12, 24 and 36%). The experiment was divided into two phases; in the first one (until day 90), fish reached a weight of 189, 198, 187 and 174 g, respectively, the...

The biomass control through acoustical techniques is a desired but not immediately achievable tool in marine aquaculture cages. The strong attenuation of the acoustical beam in a very dense school and the varying behaviour of the fishes inside the cages reveal it as a very complex problem. In order to cover the total lack of studies of the acoustic...

A 309 days feeding experiment was carried out on gilthead sea bream fingerlings (initial weight 14.7±4.4 g) to evaluate effects of substitution of fish oil with soybean oil in diets on growth and sensory characteristics and muscle fatty acid composition. Duplicate groups of fish were hand fed with four isoenergetic and isonitrogenous diets (46% pro...

The value of defatted soybean meal as a protein source for sea bream fingerlings (15.2±4.4 g on average) growing to market size (300–350 g) was evaluated by feeding extruded isonitrogenous and isoenergetic diets (46% protein and 22 MJ kg−1) containing 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% soybean meal considering two phases. On day 87, the fish weight ranged betwe...

Five hormonal treatments with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) were tested for the induction of maturation and spermiation in male farmed eels. The main aim was to optimize previously used hormonal treatments to achieve shorter induction treatments, longer spermiation periods and/or higher sperm quality. Fish treated for just 3 weeks (treatment E...