Journal article

Publication year: 2016

Pages: 53-

Journal: Frontiers in Marine Science

Volume number: 3

Open access status: Gold

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00053

Publisher: Frontiers Media

Abstract: 

Globally, wild seahorse populations are threatened due to,
habitat destruction and unsustainable human exploitation among others. Furthermore,
aquaculture-based mass-scale rearing is still uncommon due to the low survival
rates of seahorse juveniles and exceptionally high feed costs. Previous studies
have demonstrated the importance of both highly unsaturated fatty acid (HUFA)
supplies and a copepod-based rearing for seahorse survival and growth. As the
latter is expensive, the question arises as to how high survival rates of
seahorse juveniles can be assured under low- to moderate-cost feed regimes. In
particular, it remains unknown whether the diet species or their dietary HUFA profiles
determine the successful development of seahorse fry. Therefore, the aims of
this study were to assess the dependence of growth and survival rates of Hippocampus
reidi brood on the animal feed and to infer the impact of feed species vs.
dietary HUFA profiles on juvenile growth. A nutrition experiment was conducted
where juveniles were treated either with enriched Artemia nauplii
(low-cost diet Art) or with a mixed diet of Artemia and copepods
(moderate-cost diet Art/Cop).Larval survival and growth were analyzed
using Cox proportional-hazard and linear mixed-effect model analyses. We found
that (i) both diets enabled good survival, (ii) diet Art/Cop resulted in
superior weight and height growth, and (iii) the differential effects of diets Art/Cop
and Artcannot be explained by their different HUFA compositions alone.
From aneconomical point of view, our findings of high survival rates and relatively
high growth rates with the medium-cost treatment Art/Cop may open new
possibilities for the large-scale rearing of seahorses. Even the application of
a low-cost Artdiet might be appropriate for seahorse aquacultures as
both survival and growth rates are only marginally lower compared to the former
diet.

Harvard Citation style: Schubert, P., Vogt, L., Eder, K., Hauffe, T. and Wilke, T. (2016) Effects of Feed Species and HUFA Composition on Survival and Growth of the Longsnout Seahorse (Hippocampus reidi), Frontiers in Marine Science, 3, p. 53. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00053

APA Citation style: Schubert, P., Vogt, L., Eder, K., Hauffe, T., & Wilke, T. (2016). Effects of Feed Species and HUFA Composition on Survival and Growth of the Longsnout Seahorse (Hippocampus reidi). Frontiers in Marine Science. 3, 53. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00053