The effect of lipid-enriched Artemia franciscana on reproductive performance of broodstock and larval quality of Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei

Broodstock maturation diets are an important component of shrimp hatchery management, since the nutritional status of spawners can impact on gonadal maturation, egg fecundity, embryo hatchability and overall larval quality. The ability to manipulate the biochemical composition of Artemia to deliver key nutrients to cultured animals has rendered their inclusion in broodstock feeds increasingly common. Lipid enrichment of Artemia franciscana to boost their unsaturated fatty acid content is a standard procedure.  During this study, frozen, lipid-enriched adult Artemia biomass, squid and mollusc were fed to Litopenaeus vannamei broodstock to investigate the suitability of enriched Artemia as a maturation diet for the species and elucidate the role of essential fatty acids in the reproductive performance of the shrimp. Four lipid enrichment levels: PUFA (P group), MUFA (M group), HUFA (H1and H2 groups), un-enriched (NE group), No-Artemia (NA group), were fed to L. vannamei over 45 days. Significant differences in weight gain and specific growth rate were observed. Greatest mean SGR was recorded for shrimp of P-group as well as greatest mean final weight on day 45, while the lowest mean SGR was found for shrimp fed Diet NA. The fecundity of the broodstock shrimp fed diets either H1 or H2 increased compared with that of the shrimps fed NA (p<0.05). Significant differences in the hatching rate were observed. Changes in gonado-somatic index (GSI) of broodstock during ovarian maturation  were very pronounced, but changes in hepato-somatic index (HSI) were not significantly different between the broodstock groups.