Marine fish gonads and Artemia sp. biomass in Litopenaeus vannamei broodstock diet: effect on reproductive performance

Abstract

The reproductive performance of Litopenaeus vannamei in captivity was evaluated after replacing Artemia biomass by marine fish gonads. Three diets were used: one as Control, made up of squid, mussel, Artemia biomass, marine fish gonads and commercial feed; and two test diets: Gonad, without of Artemia biomass; and Artemia, without marine fish gonads. There were no statistically significant differences (p >0.05) between diet treatments regarding the number of spawns/month, number of eggs/spawn, number of nauplii/spawn, hatching rate and nauplii-protozoeae metamorphosis rate. In comparison to the Artemia biomass, marine fish gonads had higher concentrations of crude protein and total fat (70.2% and 17.1%, respectively). There were also statistical differences between feed items and experimental diets in the total nutritional composition and fatty acid profile (p <0.05). The Gonad diet had highest concentrations of crude protein (69.7%) and total fat (8.34%). Arachidonic acid was more abundant in the Artemia biomass (10%), however, Artemia diet had the lowest concentration of this fatty acid, with 1.61%. Artemia biomass did not contain docosahexaenoic acid, whereas the marine fish gonads had a high content of this fatty acid (18.1%). These results indicate the possibility of replacing Artemia biomass by marine fish gonads in maturation diets for L. vannamei.