Growth and survival of
juvenile seahorse Hippocampus abdominalis reared on live, frozen and
artificial foods
C.M.C. Woods-2003
Aquaculture, 220(1-4): 287-298
Abstract:
The culture of seahorses has usually relied on
cultured live foods or collected wild live foods as feed. This can be
expensive in the case of culturing live foods and unreliable in the case of
harvesting wild live foods. This investigation examined whether juvenile Hippocampus
abdominalis from 0 to 2 months of age could be experimentally weaned
onto frozen (Cyclop-eeze copepods) and artificial (Golden Pearls) food over
30-day periods with Artemia as a live food control, with 0-, 5-, 10-,
and 20-day mixed feeding periods. Newborn juveniles could not be weaned onto
Golden Pearls, with almost complete mortality. One-month-old juveniles could
be weaned onto Cyclop-eeze with no effect on survival but with lower growth.
One-month-old juveniles could be weaned onto Golden Pearls but with lower
survival and lower growth. Two-month-old juveniles could be weaned onto
Cyclop-eeze but with lower survival and lower growth. Two-month-old
juveniles could be weaned onto Golden Pearls with no effect on survival but
with lower growth. In all experiments, the rate of feeding strikes on
Cyclop-eeze and Golden Pearls was lower than that on Artemia (e.g.
range of mean 0.16–0.97 vs. 2.2–2.76 feeding strikes/min), both when Artemia
were the sole food presented and when Artemia were cofed with the
nonlive foods. However, mixed feeding Artemia with nonlive foods did
appear to increase the rate of feeding strikes on nonlive foods. These
results indicate the potential for incorporating more cost effective and
reliable nonlive foods into seahorse culture.
(National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
Ltd., P.O. Box 14-901, Wellington, New Zealand, e-mail: c.woods@niwa.cri.nz)