Due to the expansion of aquaculture and the limited resources available from the sea, it is necessary to find
substitutes for fish meal for use in aquaculture. We believe that the use of insect meals as an alternative source
of animal protein may be an option. To use insects for this purpose, it is necessary to determine the nutritive
characteristics of these insects. To determinate the potential of insects as a substitute for fish meal in fish food
used in aquaculture, we examined 16 different species, 5 of them as different stage of development, of the orders
Coleoptera (4), Diptera (7) and Orthoptera (5). The insect analysed have a higher proportion of fat and less
protein than fish meal. With the exceptions of histidine, threonine and lysine, the insects present an amino
acid profile similar to fish meal, with Diptera b being the most similar group to fish meal. However, the fatty
acid content of insects is very different from that of fish meal which is rich in n-3, especially 14% EPA, 16%
DHA, practically absent in insects. The insects have higher ratios of omega 6 and monounsaturated fat