Present scenario and prospects of the use of aquatic plants in aquaculture: a review

Aquaculture plays a substantial role in providing high-quality food globally, as fish serve as a source of protein, minerals, and polyunsaturated fatty acids for human health. Consequently, aquaculture production is steadily increasing. However, there are some challenges including high expense of commercial feed, aquatic pollution, diseases, misuse of antibiotics, and safety of food fish for human health that are concerns for the achievement of sustainable aquaculture production. Therefore, there is a need to explore more options to address these problems. The use of aquatic plants in aquaculture could be the best way to solve these problems and develop sustainable aquaculture production. Aquatic plants, including algae, submerged plants, floating-leaf plants, and emergent plants, offer nutritionally enriched options used in aquaculture as direct feed or feed ingredients. Recent observations indicate that various forms of algae (e.g., nanoparticles, extracts, and pigments) have emerged as promising feed additives in aquaculture. Their application has demonstrated a notable enhancement in the growth performance and survival rates of fishes. This review summarizes the uses of aquatic plants in aquaculture, including (1) direct feeding of fish, (2) use as feed ingredients for fish feed, (3) reduction of water pollution through phytoremediation to improve water quality, and (4) serving as a therapeutic source for disease management. In addition, this article emphasizes the potential of different aquatic plants to solve various problems, including those posed by climate change, in achieving a safe and sustainable aquatic production.