1 SEPTEMBER 1999
S. Fontagne, T. Pruszynski, G. Corraze, P. Bergot-1999
Aquaculture, 179(1-4)-Special Issue: Proceedings of the VIII International Symposium on Feeding and Nutrition in Fish (recent Advances in Finfish & Crustacean Nutrition): 241-251
Abstract:
A 21-day feeding trial was carried out to investigate the ability of first-feeding carp larvae to utilize medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA). Six semi-purified diets, with a common casein and soluble fish protein concentrate basis, were tested on triplicate groups of 400 larvae. The diets were isolipidic (23-24% of dry matter). They differed only by triacylglycerol supplementation (10% of diet) which consisted of either triolein (TO), coconut oil (CO) or tricaprylin (TC) alone or in combination of two of these (TO+CO, CO+TC, TO+TC). Survival and growth rates of larvae fed with CO or TO were high (survival 95-97%, mean wet weight 60-67 mg after 21 days). Addition of TC (5 or 10% of diet) induced a significant mortality as early as 11 days of feeding and resulted in a final survival of less than 6%. TC also led to reduced growth rates (final mean larval weight 6-13 mg). The fatty acid (FA) composition of larvae fed with TO or CO reflected that of the diets with high levels of oleic acid (42% of total FA) in larvae fed with TO and lauric and myristic acids (17 and 10% of total FA, respectively) in larvae fed with CO. In contrast, larvae fed with TC contained only traces (0.3% of total FA) of caprylic acid but had higher levels of capric acid than other larvae (6% vs. 1-2%). Present results indicate an important difference in the utilization between MCFA supplied as CO (12:0) and TC (8:0).
(Unite Mixte INRA-IFREMER de Nutrition des Poissons, Station d'Hydrobiologie, B.P. 3, 64310 Saint-Pee-sur-Nivelle, France)