Temperature Affects Growth and Tissue Fatty Acid Composition of Juvenile Atlantic Spadefish

Abstract

The Atlantic spadefish Chaetodipterus faber holds potential as an aquaculture species, but successful intensive production of this species will depend on the identification of proper husbandry methods, including the use of optimal water temperatures. Accordingly, we evaluated the growth performance and tissue composition of juveniles (37.8 ± 0.5 g [mean ± SE]) reared at 20, 25, or 30 • C in indoor recirculation systems (three 100-L tanks per temperature, five fish per tank) for 8 weeks. Weight gain, specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio, and feed intake were significantly affected by water temperature, and increasing temperature yielded greater feed intake and growth rates as well as lower feed conversion values. Although performance observed at 25 • C was statistically similar, growth and growth efficiency were nonetheless marginally superior within the 30 • C treatment group. Fish exhibited differences in the fatty acid composition of neutral and polar lipid fractions of gill and muscle tissue that were broadly consistent with homeoviscous adaptation to cooler or warmer water temperatures; specifically, increasing proportions of unsaturated and longer-chain fatty acids were observed in fish from cooler water temperatures. This suggests that unsaturates, particularly long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids that are associated with maximum membrane fluidity at cold temperatures, are critical in the diet of Atlantic spadefish depending on culture conditions.

Nutritional quality of eastern school whiting (Sillago flindersi) under contemporary and future environmental conditions

“…Our results suggest that S. flindersi may become a less concentrated dietary source of DHA for human consumers under future ocean warming. Similar findings for ocean warming impacts on DHA have been reported for several other fish species including a 3% decrease in Thunnus alalunga (albacore tuna; Pethybridge et al, 2015), 4.5-29.4% in Salmo salar (Atlantic salmon; Arts et al, 2012) and 12.5-16.4% in Chaetodipterus faber (Atlantic spadefish; Trushenski et al, 2012) and as a broad trend throughout marine systems (Colombo et al, 2020;Tan et al, 2022). If reductions in omega-3 fatty acids occur across a broad range of harvested marine species, the total dietary availability of this essential nutritional element for humans will decline, leading to reduced health benefits and increased risk of illness and disease (Colombo et al, 2020).…”

Comparative Analysis of Fatty Acid Profiles in Brains and Eyes of Five Economic Fish Species in Winter and Summer

“…HUFAs are necessary to maintain the fluidity of cellular membranes, especially in cold environments [27,28]. Therefore, fishes may need to synthesize more long-chain PUFA in neural tissues in winter than in summer to maintain sufficient membrane fluidity [29]. Our data show that the fatty acid composition of brains and eyes of tilapia and grass carp, which contained a high proportion of n-6 PUFAs, remained relatively stable regardless of the season.…”

Trophic Levels Predict the Nutritional Essentiality of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Fish—Introduction to a Special Section and a Brief Synthesis

“…Certain life stages may have greater requirements for fatty acids to support developmental processes (e.g., reproductive development of broodstock), or to compensate for underdeveloped metabolic and biosynthetic capacities (i.e., development and metamorphosis during early life history) (Takeuchi 1997;Sargent et al 2002;Glencross 2009;Tocher 2010). Fatty acid demand may also be influenced by rearing salinities (Lund et al, 2019) and temperatures (Arts and Kohler 2009;Nobrega et al 2017), although the demands of homeoviscous adaptation and preservation of membrane integrity are typically met using various non-essential saturated (SFA) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) in addition to C 18 PUFA and/or LC-PUFA (Trushenski et al 2012a). Perhaps most importantly, we have recently demonstrated that not all LC-PUFA may be nutritionally…”