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The current study quantified the relative contribution of dietary carbon and nitrogen supplied by live biomass of the green macroalgae Ulva clathrata and a commercial inert feed to the growth of juvenile shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. The stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) were analyzed in both food sources, whole bodies, and muscle tissue of shrimp reared on co-feeding regimes where 75%, 50%, and 25% of daily consumed macroalgal biomass was substituted by inert feed (regimes 75F/25U, 50F/50U, and 25F/75U, respectively). Higher growth rates were observed in shrimp fed regime 75F/ 25U (k = 0.062), followed by shrimp fed only inert feed (100F, k = 0.060). Animals reared only on U. clathrata (100U) showed minimal growth (k = 0.008) and very high metabolic turnover rates of carbon and nitrogen. Isotopic values measured in inert feed (δ¹³C = -23.0‰, δ¹⁵N = 9.1‰) and …