Effects of enriched Artemia urmiana with HUFA on growth, survival, and fatty acids composition of the Persian sturgeon larvae (Acipenser persicus)

Recently, the nutritional requirements of marine finfish larvae have received considerableattention, and studies have shown that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and icosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and arachidonic acid (ARA) affects the growth and survival of marine finfish larvae. This study investigated the effects of different Artemia enrichments containing variable amounts of DHA and EPA on the growth and survival of larval Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus). Four different Artemia enrichments ICES30/4 (with 20.90mg/g DW DHA and 6.29mg/g DW EPA), Sturgeon Ovary Oil (SOO) (with 2.76mg/g DW DHA and 7.55mg/g DW EPA), Cod Liver Oil (CLO) (with 7.64mg/g DW DHA and 11.39mg/g DW EPA) and Linseed Oil (LO) (with 0.00mg/g DW DHA and 0.03mg/g DW EPA) in seventy five aquaria (each 45 liter, with three replicates per treatment) were used. The resultant Artemia contained a different concentration of DHA (0.00-5.99mg/g DW) and EPA (0.69- 4.97mg/g DW). Larvae were fed with Artemia from 3 to 20 days after active feeding at 250 prey l-1. Results showed that there were significant differences between treatments regarding to the total length and wet weight but no significant differences were found in dry weight between the larvae reared on different treatments. However, larvae reared on LO were significantly higher (in weight) than larvae reared on ICES30/4 and SOO. Larval survival on the SOO enriched Artemia (93.3±1.6) at 20th day was significantly higher than other treatments. Our results showed a positive effect of Artemia DHA proportions on growth and survival of the Persian sturgeon, and demonstrated that larvae of this species require a high ratio of dietary DHA to EPA.