Feeding Larval Gulf Killifish: Total Replacement of Artemia Nauplii and Co‐Feeding from Hatch

Abstract

Larval Gulf Killifish Fundulus grandis hatching from air‐incubated eggs are precocial, with well‐developed mouths and eyes providing an immediate capacity for exogenous feeding. Live feeds are almost universally used in finfish and crustacean hatcheries, with newly hatched brine shrimp Artemia spp. nauplii being a standard. Across two experiments from hatch in Gulf Killifish, we evaluated the ability to replace Artemia nauplii with prepared diets. Experiment 1 measured growth and survival from hatch through 8 weeks in larval Gulf Killifish fed either Artemia nauplii or one of five commercially available diets. Experiment 2 measured survival and SL of Gulf Killifish larvae at 5, 10, and 15 d posthatch among treatments consisting of animals fed Artemia nauplii, the best‐performing commercial diet from experiment 1, or an experimental microbound diet or “co‐fed” the microbound diet and Artemia. In experiment 1, Gulf Killifish larvae fed live Artemia nauplii exhibited growth that significantly outperformed commercially available formulated diets. Mean ± SE (SEM) survival (%) among treatments ranged from 51.1 ± 7.4 to 86.2 ± 2.1. Larvae fed one commercially prepared diet outperformed larvae fed the other four commercial diets in terms of growth. In experiment 2, mean SL was significantly different among treatments by 15 d posthatch. Mean ± SEM survival (%) across all treatments in experiment 2 ranged from 87.7 ± 0.8 to 99.2 ± 0.4. Results of these experiments are some of the first to document acceptable growth and survival of finfish larvae when Artemia nauplii are completely replaced with formulated diets from hatch. The distinctive larval biology of the study species in concert with the ability to air‐incubate the embryos were presumably important factors in the ability to completely replace Artemia nauplii from hatch.

Larval growth, survival, and partial budget analysis related to replacing Artemia in larval culture of six freshwater ornamental fishes

“…For each of these five species, feeding at least one of the MDs for the first 14 days of feeding resulted in either statistically similar or greater survival and growth, and the PBAs suggested a net benefit relative to feeding Artemia for the same time period (Tables 2–4). These findings agree with some previous studies that have successfully replaced live feeds with MDs in the first feeding of larval fish without deleteriously impacting survival and growth, including gulf killifish Fundulus grandis (Patterson et al, 2016), hybrid catfish Heterobranchus bidorsalis × Heterobranchus longifillis (Israel Adekunle & Bola Joyce, 2014), sharptooth catfish Clarias gariepinus (Vandecan, Diallo, & Mélard, 2011), milkfish Chanos chanos (Sukardi et al, 2019), European whitefish Coregonus lavaretus (Esmaeilzadeh‐Leithner & Wanzenböck, 2018), and zebrafish Danio rerio (Carvalho, Araújo, & Santos, 2006).…”

“…The decapsulation process involves rehydrating the dried cysts (~2 hr) and decapsulating in bleach (~15 min), followed by daily hatching of cysts. The labor associated with these processes is extensive compared to the simplicity of feeding formulated diets (Patterson et al, 2016).…”

“…The labor associated with these processes is extensive compared to the simplicity of feeding formulated diets (Patterson et al, 2016).…”

Effect of feeding strategy on survival, growth, intestine development, and liver status of maraena whitefish Coregonus maraena larvae

“…Present study investigated a single artificial diet in combination with Artemia . However, it was demonstrated that different formulations of artificial diets can provide significantly different results during larval rearing as demonstrated for Gulf killifish Fundulus grandis (Patterson et al, 2016). Therefore, next research should be focused on comparison of performance available commercial diets in early rearing protocols for C. maraena .…”

Investigations into Early Larval Feeding Practices for the Tiger Barb Puntigrus tetrazona

“…Although dormant Artemia cysts are easily stored and cultured for use relative to other live feeds, their collection is dependent on environmentally induced cyst blooms, which can result in market volatility and inflated costs (Cahu and Zambonino Infante 2001;Hamre et al 2013). These negative aspects of Artemia use as a live feed, coupled with biosecurity concerns inherent to introducing wild organisms into the rearing environment, have prompted numerous studies evaluating alternative first feeds (Lazo et al 2000;Wang et al 2005;Sautter et al 2007;Patterson et al 2016;Lipscomb et al 2020a).…”