Highly unsaturated fatty acid requirements of Penaeus monodon postlarvae: an experimental approach based on Artemia enrichment

Feeding n 3 HUFA enriched Artemia to the larvae of the pink shrimp Farfantepenaeus paulensis increases stress tolerance and subsequent growth

“…The beneficial effects of n-3 HUFA on tolerance to salinity stress may also be related to changes in the arrangement of fatty acids in the gill membrane and the consequent increase in shrimp osmosis capability . Furthermore, shrimp fed n-3 HUFA rich diets have larger gill area , which concurs with the more ramified gill structure reported in n-3 HUFA fed P. monodon postlarvae (Rees et al, 1994). Although stress tests have been commonly used as a tool to compare the quality of crustacean larvae and juveniles in terms of tolerance to a number of physical and chemical parameters (Tackaert et al, 1989;Samocha et al, 1998;Cavalli et al, 2000;Chim et al, 2001;Álvarez et al, 2004;Martins et al, 2006;Immanuel et al, 2007;Sui et al, 2007), to date few studies have attempted to correlate the results of stress tests with the posterior growth performance of shrimp.…”

“…Postlarvae fed enriched Artemia also presented higher weight at the end of the larviculture period. Although this corresponds well with previous findings demonstrating the positive effect of dietary n-3 HUFA in the enhancement of larval growth and development (Lèger & Sorgeloos, 1992;Rees et al, 1994; Cavalli et al, 2000;Palacios et al, 2004;Immanuel et al, 2007), it disagrees with studies where no effect of n-3 HUFA enriched Artemia were observed in the size of P. monodon (Rees et al, 1994) and F. paulensis postlarvae (Pontes & Andreatta, 2003) or where a negative relationship between dietary n-3 HUFA levels and postlarval length was observed (Martins et al, 2006). Differences between these studies may be due to various causes, including variations in experimental design, species, feed management, composition of the emulsions, postlarval size and age, or duration of the experimental period.…”

“…A positive effect of the provision of dietary n-3 HUFA to crustaceans is that it often results in higher stress tolerance (Tackaert et al, 1989;Dhert et al, 1992;Rees et al, 1994;Cavalli et al, 2000;Chim et al, 2001;Palacios et al, 2004;Immanuel et al, 2007;Sui et al, 2007). It is therefore recognized that penaeids fed n-3 HUFA deficient diets generally express a low tolerance to stress (Chim et al, 2001;Palacios & Racotta, 2007).…”

“…Since Artemia is a nonselective filter feeding organism, enhancement of n-3 HUFA levels is achieved through enrichment techniques, by which n-3 HUFA rich compounds are provided to Artemia and consequently increase their nutritional value (Sorgeloos et al, 1998;Wouters et al, 2009). Previous studies have shown that feeding n-3 HUFA rich diets results in improved survival, growth andor stress tolerance of several crustacean species (Tackaert et al, 1989;Rees et al, 1994;Cavalli et al, 2000;Chim et al, 2001;Martins et al, 2006;Immanuel et al, 2007;Sui et al, 2007;Jinbo et al, 2013). Nonetheless, few studies have considered the effects of the nutritional quality of larviculture diets on further shrimp performance.…”

Changes in gut content and composition of juvenile Artemia after oil enrichment and during starvation

“…Many enrichment protocols for Artemia in the past have centered on nauplii, and in particular, on how to achieve and maintain high levels of docosahexaenoic acid [DHA,], eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA,], and increase the DHA:EPA ratio (Watanabe et al, 1982;Rees et al, 1994;Rasowo et al, 1995;Narciso et al, 1999). While this is a suitable line of investigation for many cultured marine finfish and crustacean species, it may not be suited to phyllosoma larvae of the spiny lobster Jasus edwardsii (Phleger et al, 2001), a species under investigation for culture in Australia, New Zealand and Japan.…”