the effects (growth and
survival) of weaning Senegal sole (solea senegalensis) post-larvae with
natural and artificial diets
L.A. Harman, L. Conceição, C. Hardy
Abstract:
The Senegal sole (Solea senegalensis) is a
highly desired flatfish in Southern European countries, particularly Spain
and Portugal. The intensive culture of this species has been ongoing,
however the growth of the industry is currently constrained by poor survival
during weaning from live to artificial diets. This project describes the
effects of natural and artificial weaning diets on the growth of S.
senegalensis post-larvae. Larvae were split into three groups, one was
fed a control diet of enriched Artemia metanauplii, whereas the other groups
were weaned onto two different artificial weaning diets (ICES and SSF). The
growth of the post-larvae was examined over a period of seven weeks. The
results show that the SSF weaning diet produced the best larval growth,
whilst the ICES treatment larvae showed higher percentage protein
composition. The condition factors decreased over the weaning period, as
would be expected. The mortalities over the duration were varied, with good
survival being observed in the post-larvae fed the SSF treatment diet. Poor
survival was observed in the control treatment post-larvae. The results of
the experiment demonstrated that S. senegalensis post-larvae can be
successfully weaned onto artificial diets with good growth and survival.
(North Atlantic Fisheries College, Port Arthur,
Scalloway, Shetland, UK, ZE1 0UN)