Composition in essential and non-essential elements of early stages of cephalopods and dietary effects on the elemental profiles of Octopus vulgaris paralarvae

Abstract

International audienceDuring the present study, we aimed at providing a first look at the elemental composition of the early stages of cephalopods as an approach to their elemental requirements in culture. Essential and non-essential elemental profiles of the European cuttlefish Sepia officinalis, the European squid Loligo vulgaris and the common octopus Octopus vulgaris laboratory hatchlings and wild juveniles were analysed. In addition, for O. vulgaris we determined elemental profiles of mature ovary, eggs in different stages of development and followed possible effects of four dietary treatments during paralarval rearing, also analyzing elemental content of the live preys Artemia nauplii and Maja brachydactyla hatchling zoeae. Content was determined for essential (As, Ca, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Rb, S, Sr, Zn) and non-essential (Ag, Al, Ba, Cd, Hg, Pb) elements. The content in non-essential elements found in hatchlings and juveniles of the three species analyzed here seems to be far lower in comparison with subadult and adult stages of coastal cephalopods. In the octopus eggs, the non-essential element concentrations remained globally low compared to hatchlings and juveniles indicating the absorption of these elements along the ontogenetic development. The elemental composition of the octopus ovary and of the eggs, hatchlings and juveniles of the three cephalopod species analyzed here showed a high content in S. As expected, the calcified internal shell of the cuttlefish, rich in Ca and Sr, originates the main difference between species. It is remarkable the richness in Cu of hatchling octopus, that may indicate a particular nutritional requirement for this element during the planktonic life. The reared octopus paralarvae feed on Artemia nauplii, a prey with relatively low Cu content, showed nearly half Cu content that the "natural" profile of octopus hatchlings or wild juveniles. This suggests a dietary effect and/or an indication of the poor physiological stage of the Artemia-fed paralarvae. At the present, the percentage of essential element absorption by food or seawater is unknown for cephalopods and should be determined in the future to understand their feeding requirements in culture

Ocean acidification and temperature rise: effects on calcification during early development of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis

“…Lacoue-Labarthe et al 2009). In the octopod Octopus vulgaris however, calcium concentration increases during the oocyte development, suggesting that this essential element could be obtained from seawater intake (Villanueva and Bustamante 2006). It has been previously demonstrated that the eggshell displays a selective permeability to dissolved trace elements, independently of their essential or non-essential character (Bustamante et al 2002, Lacoue-Labarthe et al 2008, and that changes in seawater pCO 2 conditions could affect these properties (Lacoue-Labarthe et al 2009).…”

“…In cephalopods, the requirements in essential elements are poorly known and only few studies have examined the elemental content of early stages (Craig and Overnell 2003, Villanueva and Bustamante 2006, Miramand et al 2006. Calcium reserves needed for metabolic processes could be contained in the rich yolk of the cuttlefish egg (Boletzky 1974(Boletzky , 1989e.g.…”

Nutritional Limitation Travels up the Food Chain

“…High P invertebrate predators may be much more vulnerable to the effects of P-depletion in herbivorous zooplankton. Examples might be early life stages of molluscs, such as squids and cuttlefish (VILLANUEVA and BUSTAMANTE, 2006), which have very high growth rates. Experiments with young Sepia officinalis (MELZNER et al, 2005) and Loligo opalescens (VIDAL et al, 2006) paralarvae have shown that growth rates are tightly coupled to RNA : DNA ratios and P-demand (GILLOOLY et al, 2005), and that RNA concentrations are exceptionally high in fast growing individuals.…”

Molluscs and echinoderms aquaculture: biological aspects, current status, technical progress and future perspectives for the most promising species in Italy

“…Useful information was obtained about the nutritional requirements of paralarvae by the comparison of the chemical profiles of mature ovaries, eggs at different developmental stages, fresh hatchlings and wild juveniles with the chemical profiles of paralarvae cultured for one month with different live natural prey and with those of the prey administered Villanueva, 2000, 2003;Villanueva et al, 2002Villanueva et al, , 2004Villanueva et al, , 2009Villanueva and Bustamante, 2006). Special attention was paid to polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), especially docosahexaenoic (DHA), DHA/ eicosapentaenoic (EPA) ratio, phospholipids, cholesterol, to some essential amino acids (lysine, leucine and arginine representing about 50% of the total essential amino acids of paralarvae), mineral (copper) and vitamins (Vitamin A, but especially Vitamin E; Villanueva et al, 2009).…”