Growth of pike larvae (Esox lucius) under different conditions of food quality and salinity |
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| Authors: | J Engström-Öst M Lehtiniemi S H Jónasdóttir M Viitasalo |
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| Institution: | Finnish Institute of Marine Research, Helsinki, Finland;, Department of Marine Ecology and Aquaculture, Danish Institute for Fisheries Research, Charlottenlund, Denmark |
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| Abstract: | Abstract – We measured growth of pike larvae ( Esox lucius ) fed with freshwater and brackish-water zooplankton by monitoring larval wet weight during 18 days. The fish food was analysed for species composition, carbon, nitrogen and fatty acids. Further, we analysed fish larval faecal pellet production. Larval weight was significantly higher in fresh water than in brackish water with natural zooplankton as food. Growth, given as wet weight, showed a significant relationship with zooplankton (>100 μ m) food carbon and highly unsaturated fatty acids, 20:5ω3, 22:6ω3, ω6 fatty acids and the ω3/ω6 fatty acid ratio. Phytoplankton fatty acids (10–50 μ m), such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, 20:5ω3, 22:6ω3 and the ω3 fatty acids also correlated strongly with the wet weight of pike larvae. We demonstrated that several factors impact on pike larval growth. |
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| Keywords: | brackish water fatty acids food quality fresh water pike salinity |
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