The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the addition of Navicula sp. on plankton composition and postlarvae growth of Litopenaeus vannamei reared in culture tanks with zero water exchange systems. Four treatments were considered: zero water exchange (ZWE); ZWE with the addition of feed (ZWE-F); ZWE with the addition of Navicula sp. (ZWE-N) and ZWE with the addition of feed and Navicula sp. (ZWE-FN), all in triplicate. Shrimp of 17.7 +/- 0.02 mg were stocked at a density of 2500 shrimp m(-3) and microalgae added on the 1st, 5th and 15th day at a density of 5x10(4) cell mL(-1). The shrimp were fed a commercial feed composed by 42% crude protein four times a day except in the ZWE treatment. For data analysis we used Cochran, Shapiro-Wilk, ANOVA, Tukey and Student-t tests (P < 0.05). The most frequent genera were: Anabaena, Arcella, Asplanchma, Bosmina, Brachionus, Cylindrotheca, Daphnia, Fragilaria, Hemiaulus, Keratella, Orthoseira, Oscillatoria, Phymatodocis, Rhabdonema, Skeletonema, Sckizothrix and Ulothrix. Significant differences between treatments were observed for TAN, NO2-N, alkalinity, final weight, weight gain, final biomass, biomass gain, feed conversion ratio, specific growth rate and survival. The ZWE-FN treatment showed better production parameters, indicating the benefits of the addition of Navicula sp. as a natural food source for L. vannamei postlarvae in zero water exchange systems.