Luis Conceição
Co-Founder, Co-CEO, R&D Director
SPAROS Lda
Portugal
Luis is Co-Founder, Co-CEO and R&D Director at SPAROS Lda, Portugal. Previously, he served as as post-doc at SINTEF Aquaculture (Trondheim, Norway) and Researcher at CCMAR / University of Algarve (Faro, Portugal).
He has 25 years’ experience in coordinating/participating in R&D projects, including product development and market deployment, supervising PhD students, and teaching courses on larval nutrition, sustainable aquaculture, and precision fish nutrition and feeding.
Luis has a MSc at ICBAS/Porto University (Portugal) and PhD at Wageningen University (The Netherlands).
Cost Efficiency with Digestible Nutrient-based Formulations
Abstract
Major progress has been achieved in feeding marine fish and shrimp larvae through precision microdiets integrating advanced formulation technologies and functional ingredients. These microdiets markedly improve early growth, survival, and larval robustness (e.g., stress resistance) while supporting immune and antioxidant functions. Cost effectiveness is addressed via partial replacement of expensive marine proteins and oils with alternative sources (e.g., plant proteins, algal lipids) without performance loss, and by deploying high-quality microdiets to accelerate growth and reduce time-to-market. Crucially, optimal diet composition (e.g., peptide size, lipid level, functional additive dose) varies by species and developmental stage, so a one diet fits all approach is ineffective. Tailored, species- and stage-specific microdiets are essential to maximize larval performance, health status, and quality, supporting sustainable aquaculture.
© TARS 2026 – The Aquaculture Roundtable Series®