Comparison of diets for the tropical spiny lobster Panulirus ornatus: astaxanthin-supplemented feeds and mussel flesh

Abstract

The fast-growing tropical lobster Panulirus ornatus is a good aquaculture candidate generating increased research to develop potential feeds. We conducted a 12-week experiment, assessing growth, survival and tissue carotenoid levels of juvenile P. ornatus. Lobsters were fed either pelleted feeds supplemented with astaxanthin and containing 30, 60, 90 or 120 mg total carotenoid kg )1 ; or one of two fresh mussel reference feeds -blue Mytilus edulis and green-lipped Perna canaliculus. There was no clear dose response, in terms of growth rate, to increasing dietary astaxanthin content; mussel-fed lobsters had inferior growth rates. Twelve-week survival was unaffected by treatment. Whole lobster carotenoid (4.7, 16.7, 27.8 and 32.8 mg kg )1 , dry matter basis) increased with increasing dietary astaxanthin; pre-treatment carotenoid was 22.2 mg kg )1 . Apparent total carotenoid content of the mussel-fed lobsters was unexpectedly high because of interference by other pigments. High-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of free astaxanthin levels varied from a pre-treatment value of 7.3 mg kg )1 to 2.0, 7.6, 12.5 and 23.6 mg kg )1 with increasing dietary astaxanthin, and 3.5 (green-lip) and 5.9 (blue) mg kg )1 for the mussel-fed lobsters. Although dietary astaxanthin, over the investigated range, did not affect growth rate or survival, there was a dose-response increase in tissue carotenoid content and darkening of the exoskeleton pigmentation, which may have important implications for immunocompetency and marketing. These implications are discussed in the context of pelleted feed development for this species. KEY WORDS

Production and egg quality in layers fed organic diets with mussel meal

“…Campbell (1969) showed that carotenoid content in blue mussels varies due to season of the year and maturity state of the mussels, but values of total carotenoid content in fresh mussels were never below 80 mg/kg (400 mg/kg DM). Barclay et al (2006) showed a similar carotenoid content of mussels (70 mg/kg, i.e. 280 mg/kg DM).…”

Dietary astaxanthin levels affect colour, growth, carotenoid digestibility and the accumulation of specific carotenoid esters in the Giant Tiger Shrimp,Penaeus monodon

“…Other carotenoid functions include conversion to retinoids that play a prominent role in prawn development and differentiation (Linan-Cabello et al, 2002). Increased levels of dietary carotenoid resulted in the accumulation of carotenoid esters in crustaceans (Yamada et al, 1990, Supamattaya et al, 2005, Boonyaratpalin et al, 2001, Barclay et al, 2006, Kumar et al, 2009, Wade et al, 2008. The esterification of carotenoids has been implicated in the regulation of pigmentation in several species (Wade et al, 2005, Wade et al, 2012, Tume et al, 2009.…”

Dietary protein quality differentially regulates trypsin enzymes at the secretion and transcription level in Panulirus argus by distinct signaling pathways

“…Research effort over the past decades has considerably increased our knowledge about the nutritional requirements of spiny lobsters (Williams, 2007) but feeding most species with formulated diets on a least-cost basis is still a challenge. Spiny lobster growth performance is relatively poor when they are fed on dry formulated diets unless high levels of krill meal and/or krill hydrolysate are included (Smith et al, 2005;Barclay et al, 2006;Cox and Davis, 2009). It seems that spiny lobsters cannot efficiently use proteins from common aquafeed ingredients (e.g.…”