Digestive efficiency of the Australian abalone Haliotis rubra in relation to growth and feed preference

Feeding Preferences and the Nutritional Value of Tropical Algae for the Abalone Haliotis asinina

“…In fact, all low preference algae in this study had higher protein contents than the highly preferred Ulva , making it unlikely that abalone preferentially select algae that are most nutritious. Feeding trials with brown algae and H. rubra have shown positive correlations between feeding preference hierarchies, performance and the level of digestible nitrogen and crude nitrogen [2], [18], and similar data also exists for other gastropods [19]. However, in all of these studies feeding preferences were negatively correlated with polyphenolic content [2], [18], [19].…”

“…Feeding trials with brown algae and H. rubra have shown positive correlations between feeding preference hierarchies, performance and the level of digestible nitrogen and crude nitrogen [2], [18], and similar data also exists for other gastropods [19]. However, in all of these studies feeding preferences were negatively correlated with polyphenolic content [2], [18], [19]. These data suggest that preferences can be driven by digestible rather than total nitrogen content, and, at least for temperate brown algae, this relationship is strongly governed by the level of anti-nutritional phenolic compounds [4], [18].…”

“…[18]). Furthermore, nitrogen (as protein) is the most limiting nutrient for growth of any herbivore [22], and is the crucial component in diet formulation of abalone [23].…”

Gastrointestinal evacuation time, but not nutrient digestibility, of greenlip abalone, Haliotis laevigata Donovan, is affected by water temperature and age

“…Dixon (1992) reported that peak digestibility occurred at 18°C compared to 14°C or 22°C in H. midae. The influence of animal size in abalone digestibility studies has been neglected as often larger abalone (N50 mm) are used in order to obtain larger amounts of readily identifiable faecal material in the shortest period of time (Fleming, 1995).…”

Effects of wild and farm-grown macroalgae on the growth of juvenile South African abaloneHaliotis midaeLinnaeus

“…Wild macroalgae on the other hand, are known to have a comparatively low protein content ranging from 4 -20 % (Mercer et al 1993, Fleming et al 1996, Fleurence et al 1999, Tahil and JuinioMenez 1999, Rosen et al 2000, Bautista-Teruel et al 2002, Demetropoulos and Langdon 2004a, 2004b, Dlaza et al 2008, Robertson-Andersson et al 2008) that result in relatively slow growth in abalone (Fleming 1995b, Fleming et al 1996, Rosen et al 2000, Kruatrachue et al 2004, Lee 2004, Neori et al 2004). Previous growth studies on H. midae (Cook and Claydon 1991, Owen et al 1984, Stepto and Cook 1993, Simpson and Cook 1998) that used macroalgae as feed, have used only wild, relatively low-protein macroalgae that whether fed as single-species, or in combination as mixed diets, have never been able to produce growth comparable to that obtained with feeds relatively high in crude protein (Viana et al 1993, Fleming 1995a,b, Fleming et al 1996, Bautista-Teruel and Millamena 1999, Bautista-Teruel et al 2002, Kruatachue et al 2004, Lee 2004).…”