Larval deformities are mostly induced at the hatchery stage by several environmental factors (abiotic factors), diseases and some dietary components. This paper investigates the potential influence of some dietary vitamins in the appearance of malformations. The impact of the dose of the vitamin mix recommended by NRC93 was evaluates, and three vitamins in particular were studied: Vitamin A (retinol acetate), vitamin D (1,25 dihydroxycalciferol), and vitamin C (ascobyl polyphosphate).

Introduction

Marine fish larvae are very immature at hatching and undergo major developmental changes during the larval period. The most visible changes concern not only the morphology of the larvae, which acquire progressively the aspects of the juvenile stage, but also other crucial changes that occur at the tissular and cell levels (maturation of the digestive functions, onset of the immune system, settlement of metabolic pathways..). A description of most of these tissular and metabolic changes is reported in Zambonino-Infante et al. (2008).

Several parameters could influence these developmental processes and therefore could negatively affect the quality of the larvae with, in particular, the appearance of malformations. Fish deformities have the more detrimental effect on the consumers’ image of aquaculture and, therefore, also on the market value of the juvenile fish.

Larval deformities are mostly induced at the hatchery stagge by several environmental factors (abiotic factors), diseases and some dietary components. In the present work, we chose to investigate the potential influence of some dietary vitamins in the appearance of malformations. We evaluated the impact of the dose of the vitamin mix recommended by NRC93, and we more particularly studied three vitamins: Vitamin A (retinol acetate), vitamin D (1,25 dihydroxycalciferol), and vitamin C (ascobyl polyphosphate).

Two marine fish species were considered in the present work: European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and seabream (Sparus aurata). The recent development of an appropriate microparticulated compound diet (Cahu et al. 2003) allowed for more precise investigations of the influence of nutrients on fish larval morphogenesis than studies based on the use of live prey. Such inert feed was used in sea bass larvae experiments from mouth opening, with a total replacement of live prey, which resulted with good survival and growth. Seabream experiments were mainly based on the classical live prey feeding sequence (rotifers and Artemia). In order to better characterise malformations, sea bass and seabream juveniles were kept until they reached 2 g weight or 3 months age respectively.

Authors

José Luis Zambonino-Infante, Giorgos Koumoundouros, Amos Tandle

Published by Aquamedia.org

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