Fatty acid composition and biometry of five Greek Artemia populations suitable for aquaculture purposes

Abstract

Evaluation of a new‐to‐science Artemia population and comparison with four other existing populations were carried out. Five parthenogenetic Artemia populations from the following Greek saltworks were studied: Alyki (a new population), Kalloni, Milos, Polychnitos and Messolongi. The diameters of non‐decapsulated and decapsulated cysts as well as the lengths of nauplii instar stages I, II and III were measured. In addition, the fatty acid composition of decapsulated cysts was estimated. The cyst size of the Alyki population was the smallest, with the largest chorion found in Greece so far. The Messolongi population had the largest cysts, with the smallest chorion of all five populations. The diameter of the non‐decapsulated cysts was highly related (P<0.01) to the length of the nauplii instar I, II and III. The diameter of decapsulated cysts was found to be the most stable and reliable biometric characteristic. The study of their fatty acids profiles revealed that the Polychnitos and Messolongi populations are suitable as live food for freshwater species, while the Alyki, Milos and Kalloni populations are suitable for marine species, having high levels (8.9%, 11.2% and 12.5% respectively) of eicosapentaenoic acid and detectable amounts (0.3%, 0.1% and 0.2% respectively) of docosahexaenoic acid.

Monthly assessments of proteins, fatty acids and amino acids inArtemia franciscanacultivated in ‘Las Salinas de Hidalgo’, state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico

“…However, the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6 n 3) was not detected in any of the monthly samples; the other two important essential fatty acids (EPA and ARA) are in sufficient quantities. The contents of such compounds are almost similar to those reported for decapsulated cyst (Moraiti et al . 2007) and nauplii which was short‐time enriched (Monroig et al 2006; Palmtag et al 2006), but lower than those reported by Malpica et al (2004) in cultivated Artemia fed with Spirulina .…”

“…2006; Chakraborty et al. 2007; Moraiti‐Ioiannidou et al. 2007), because of the importance of those compounds (mainly the polyunsaturated fatty acids) on the larval growth and survival (Helland et al.…”

“…The brine shrimp, Artemia, is the most widely used aquaculture live food for rearing larval stages of several species of fishes and crustaceans of commercial importance (Navarro et al 1992). There are several nutritional studies on the nutritional contents of Artemia, but they have focused mainly on lipids and fatty acids (Watanabe et al 1978(Watanabe et al , 1983Le´ger et al 1986;Lavens et al 1989;Navarro et al 1992;Malpica et al 2004;Monroig et al 2006;Palmtag et al 2006;Chakraborty et al 2007;Moraiti-Ioiannidou et al 2007), because of the importance of those compounds (mainly the polyunsaturated fatty acids) on the larval growth and survival (Helland et al 2000). Scant information is available on the protein and amino acid contents of this crustacean (Helland et al 2000;Malpica 2002;Araga˜o et al 2004); despite this, they are very important because growth is essentially muscle protein deposition (Carter & Houlihan 2001) and the quantity and quality of the amino acid pool of the food are vital for the early fish larvae (Araga˜o et al 2004).…”