A Biosecure, Probiotic-Driven Approach to Live Feed Production

Integrated Bio-Hatchery Protocol (IBHP)

Sterilise → Neutralize → Colonize

 

Ever looked at your hatchery protocol and thought, that don't seem right..... at all. 

Or wondering why the probiotics you are adding are not working? 

Its not you, and its not the probiotics.

Its the way you've been told to do it. 

And its wrong. 

1. The Philosophy: Why the Industry Standard Fails

The Current Issue:
Standard commercial protocols often recommend a "cocktail" approach: adding disinfectants, cysts, and probiotics simultaneously, or adding probiotics into water that still holds residual sanitizers.

• Biological Conflict: Disinfectants are non-selective; they kill beneficial bacteria (probiotics) just as effectively as they kill pathogens.
• Economic Waste: Data indicates that residual sanitizers can reduce the viability of applied probiotics by >90%. Following these (flawed) protocols means you are effectively pouring premium product down the drain.
• The "Sterile Vacuum": Sterile water has no biological buffer. Once the sanitizer dissipates, the water becomes a vacuum. The first bacteria to enter (often opportunistic Vibrio from the air or cyst shells) will dominate the system.

The IBHP Solution:

We treat the hatchery and enrichment vessels not as sterile buckets, but as Controlled Biofloc Reactors. The goal is Competitive Exclusion and colonisation by probiotic microbes: We sterilize the equipment to create a blank slate, remove all chemical traces, and THEN flood the system with beneficial bacteria to occupy every biological niche before pathogens can establish themselves.

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2. The Protocol Steps & Rationale

Phase A: Hatching Vessel Preparation

Objective: To create a pathogen-free environment without leaving toxic chemical residues.

Method Option 1: The Traditional "Hard" Clean (Chlorine/Virkon)

• Procedure: Sterilize the vessel using standard commercial disinfectants.
• The Issue: These chemicals bind to plastics and biofilms. Even after a quick rinse, they leach back into the water, creating a "kill zone" for probiotics.
• The IBHP Fix: You must Rinse, Neutralize (using Thiosulfate if using Chlorine), and Rinse again.
• Mandatory Check: Use a test kit (e.g., DPD Chlorine test) to ensure ZERO RESIDUALS. If the test registers any chemical presence, do not proceed until it is rectified.

Method Option 2: The Oxidative "Soft" Clean (Sodium Percarbonate / H2O2) – Recommended

• Procedure: Fill the vessel with clean seawater. Dose Sodium Percarbonate (Start trials at 5 – 10 ppm) or Hydrogen Peroxide.
• The Rationale: This acts as your primary disinfectant alternative. It releases Active Oxygen Species that vigorously scrub the vessel walls and, crucially, sanitize the outside of the cyst shells.
• The Solution to Residues: Unlike chlorine, these chemicals degrade into Water (H2O) and Oxygen (O2). They dissipate naturally.
• Why this is better: You achieve sanitization and shell-cleaning without leaving a toxic footprint. The byproduct (Oxygen) actually aids the hatching process.
• Now add your cysts/inoculant, once the sanitiser has had time to work, and the residuals reduced through consump[tion, posing less to no risk of damaging any live inoculant or cysts you are adding. 
• Critical Note: Active oxygen can be harmful to sensitive organisms. You must perform trial-and-error testing to find the tolerance limit for your specific strain of Rotifers or batch of Artemia cysts.

Phase B: Probiotic Colonization (The Hatch)

Objective: To dominate the water column with beneficial bacteria immediately.

• Procedure: Immediately after the oxidative reaction has subsided (Option 2) or after zero-residual is confirmed (Option 1), add Microplex or your chosen blend
• The Issue with Standard Methods: Usually, probiotics are added too late or into toxic water. Pathogens on the cyst shells hatch alongside the Artemia and infect them immediately.
• The IBHP Fix: By adding probiotics to chemically neutral, oxygen-rich water, the spores germinate instantly. They colonize the surface of the cysts. As the Artemia hatch, they emerge into a "bath" of beneficial bacteria. The probiotics consume the metabolic waste (ammonia) from the hatching process, maintaining high water quality.

Phase C: Enrichment Vessel Preparation

Objective: To ensure the enrichment stage starts with a "Clean Slate."

• Procedure: The Enrichment Tank must be cleaned and sterilized (using Option 1 or Option 2 methods) before every run.
• The Rationale: Enrichment tanks are high-nutrient environments (lipids/feeds). They are prone to heavy biofilm buildup which harbors Vibrio.
• The Fix: We sterilize to remove the old biofilm, then rinse thoroughly to ensure Zero Residuals. We are preparing the "house" for the good bacteria to move in.

Phase D: The "Biofloc Reactor" (Pre-Seeding)

Objective: To create a mature, vegetative bacterial colony prior to animal introduction.

• Procedure: 24–48 hours before harvest, fill the sterile enrichment tank with sterilised seawater and add Microplex with strong aeration.
• The Issue with Standard Methods: Probiotics are often sold as spores. When added simultaneously with the animals, the bacteria spend the first 12-24 hours "waking up" (Lag Phase). By the time they are active, the enrichment cycle is over, or the animals are already infected with opportunistic pathogens. 
• The IBHP Fix: We give the bacteria a head start. By the time you add the animals, the tank is a Mature Biofloc System. The bacteria are vegetative (active), hungry, and dominant.

Phase E: Transfer & Enrichment

Objective: Gut-loading and external protection.

• Procedure: Harvest/wash live feed, transfer to the Pre-Seeded tank, and add lipid enrichment.
• The Rationale:
  1. Internal: The animals filter-feed non-stop. They ingest the lipid enrichment and the active Biofloc bacteria. This "gut-loads" them, turning the Artemia into a delivery vehicle for probiotics to your fish.
  2. External: The high density of beneficial bacteria coats the exoskeleton of the Artemia, leaving no physical space for pathogens to attach (Competitive Exclusion).
• The Result: A physically robust, nutritionally superior, and biosecure live food organism. Coated in powerful probiotics, in way that effectively delivers them to your larvae for maximum benefit. 

 

Sounds logical to me.