Importance of the relative levels of dietary arachidonic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid for culture performance of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) larvae |
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| Authors: | Eyad Atalah Carmen María Hernández‐Cruz Tibiabin Benítez‐Santana Rachid Ganga Javier Roo Marisol Izquierdo |
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| Institution: | Grupo de Investigación en Acuicultura, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria e Instituto Canario de Ciencias Marinas, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain |
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| Abstract: | The effect of different arachidonic acid (ARA) dietary contents at several dietary eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) levels on the growth, survival and biochemical composition of gilthead seabream larvae was studied to better define the importance of this fatty acid as a function of EPA. Larvae of 18 days were fed one of the five isonitrogenous and isolipidic microdiets with three different EPA (0.3%, 2% and 4%) and ARA amounts (0.1%, 0.6% and 1.2%). Although a dietary increase in either ARA or EPA alone did not improve survival significantly, the increase in both fatty acids significantly enhanced growth and survival, suggesting an optimum dietary value of EPA:ARA close to 4:1.2. Dietary ARA was more efficiently incorporated into larval tissues than EPA. Increased dietary EPA or ARA contents reduced the incorporation of ARA or EPA into larval lipids, indicating their competition as substrates for different enzymes. The possible negative effect of further elevation of dietary ARA and its competition with EPA for phospholipids synthesis deserves further studies in marine fish larvae. |
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| Keywords: | Sparus aurata larval nutrition arachidonic acid EPA DHA |
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