DIET EVALUATION AND ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS INCORPORATION IN KURUMA PRAWN, Penaeus japonicus

Abstract

A 4-weeks experiment was undertaken to study effects of dietary fatty acid composition of post larval growth and survival of Penaeus japonicus. Fatty acid composition and transfer mechanism were also examined along the following food chain: algae – Artemia – prawn. Results indicated that the highest body weight gain was observed for the P. japonicus fed on Artemia consuming algae Tetraselmis iso, while the highest total length was indicated by the prawn fed on Artemia consuming both T. iso and T. suecica. It was also shown that the live feed was superior for the post larval growth of P. japonicus compared to commercial feed, and that the Artemia was good in transferring important nutrients from algae to the prawn. The body fatty acid was shown to be catabolized when the prawn was in starved condition. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) of the n3 series appeared to be more effective in supporting the post larval growth of P. japonicus which may indicate that the n3 series FA is more important than the n6 series.