Potential for Use of Seaweed as a Fish Feed Ingredient: A Review

Seaweeds, also known as macroalgae are marine plants used widely as food and applied in other food allied industries, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and agrochemical industries. Their production has increased over the years with advancement in identification and cultivation of different seaweed species. Over the years seaweeds have been explored as a food due to their nutrition value and bioactive compounds that are beneficial to human nutrition and health. With this principle, seaweeds can also be used as feed ingredient in aqua feeds especially due to the fact that it is a source of omega-3 and hence can be used as an alternative to fish oil whose supply has declined. Studies have shown that polyunsaturated fatty acids which are important in fish nutrition can account for about 50% of total fatty acids in seaweeds. In addition to being a good source of polyunsaturated fatty acids, seaweeds provide protein and minerals, vitamins. They are also characterized with high levels of protein rich in all the amino acids relative to some higher plant-based protein crops like soya bean. This review, therefore, aims to look at the potential of seaweed as an aqua feed ingredient with the emphasis on the nutritional characteristics.