The World Aquaculture Society (WAS) Singapore 2026 tradeshow served as the backdrop for the announcement of the global biotechnology company specialized in innovative solutions for aquaculture INVE Aquaculture, that launched Sanolife PRO-TAB, a next-generation probiotic wafer designed to enhance fish health, resilience, and survival during the critical nursery and pre-growing stages.
“Fish farmers increasingly need solutions that combine biological performance with operational simplicity,” said Thomas Raynaud, Product Manager Formulated Diets at INVE Aquaculture. “Sanolife PRO-TAB represents a new generation of probiotic delivery technology that ensures consistent intake, supports gut health, and helps farmers manage the critical nursery stage with greater confidence and efficiency.”
Sanolife PRO-TAB is formulated as slow-sinking wafers containing a high concentration of Bacillus probiotics, enabling targeted delivery directly to the fish gut. The wafers feature advanced coating technology that prevents nutrient leaching and preserves probiotic viability in water, ensuring consistent and effective probiotic intake.
The new product is available in two wafer sizes -2 mm for early nursery fish and 5 mm for pre-growing fish- supporting fish from approximately 2 g to 80 g. With excellent water stability and consistent probiotic delivery, the product supports improved survival, growth, and resilience throughout nursery cycles, they detailed. Now Sanolife PRO-TAB expands INVE Aquaculture’s Sanolife probiotic portfolio, reinforcing the company’s commitment to applying biotechnology.
Optimizing the Formulation and the Delivery System
To ensure this reliability, INVE’s R&D teams focused on optimizing both the probiotic formulation and the delivery system.
“Traditional probiotic applications in aquaculture often struggle with stability and consistent ingestion. With Sanolife PRO-TAB, we designed a delivery system that protects probiotic spores, prevents nutrient leaching, and ensures the active ingredients effectively reach the fish gut. By combining targeted Bacillus strains with a stable wafer matrix, we support microbiota balance and fish resilience in a much more reliable way,” explained for her part Barbara Hostins, R&D Lead Health at INVE Aquaculture.
The wafers also feature high attractancy, stimulating feeding behavior and encouraging fish to detect, pursue, and ingest the wafers during the sinking phase. This ensures reliable probiotic consumption while supporting improved feeding efficiency and cleaner systems.
Operational Practicality
Designed for operational practicality, Sanolife PRO-TAB requires no top-coating preparation and can be applied either manually or through automatic feeders, significantly reducing labor requirements and minimizing the risk of human error compared with traditional probiotic powders or tablets, reported INVE.
“In the nursery phase, fish are particularly vulnerable to stress events such as grading, handling, and environmental fluctuations which will cause immune depression and therefore greater susceptibility to bacterial attacks,” explained Valentina Carbone, Global Technical Expert Fish at INVE Aquaculture.
“A solution like Sanolife PRO-TAB helps farmers bridge that sensitive period by ensuring fish consistently ingest probiotics while maintaining strong feeding behavior and pathogenic bacteria resistance. In practice, this translates into healthier fish, improved survival, and more stable nursery performance,” Carbone added.
By strengthening gut microbiota and supporting fish resilience under stress conditions, Sanolife PRO-TAB complements modern health management strategies in hatcheries and nurseries. At the same time, the product contributes to improved feed utilization, reduced waste, and more stable production outcomes.
Challenges at the Hatchery and the Nursery
At the presentation, the members of INVE Aquaculture highlighted that the nursery stage represents one of the most sensitive phases in fish production. Mortality can increase during this period, and it has been scientifically proven through numerous trials that the use of probiotics in the water or better yet, mixed with feed can significantly reduce mortality.
However, applying these probiotics in feed is not always easy, and hatchery and nursery operators often face challenges such as inconsistent probiotic intake, leaching of active ingredients in water, labor-intensive preparation methods. But Sanolife PRO-TAB, explained INVE Aquaculture, addresses these challenges through a novel delivery technology that ensures reliable probiotic intake while simplifying daily farm operations.
