Fatty acid profile, proteolytic activity and survival of Octopus bimaculatus paralarvae fed with enriched Artemia franciscana

ABSTRACT

Octopus bimaculatus is an economically important food resource and a potential candidate for aquaculture diversification in the Pacific coast of Mexico; knowledge of its nutritional requirements is nil. For this reason, the composition of fatty acids of the newly hatched paralarvae was determined, as a criterion to define their requirements for essential fatty acids. We also evaluated the nutritional effect of live Artemia franciscana (8.2 ± 1.20 mm total length) enriched with tuna orbit oil (the TOO group) on the proteolytic activity and survival of the O. bimaculatus paralarvae in one experiment. The experimental cultivation of paralarvae fed with the TOO group was ended 17 days after hatching (DAH) with a survival of 1.93% and an increase of suckers per arm from five at hatching to nine, while those fed with the non-enriched A. franciscana (the control group) finished with only six suckers at 11 DAH and a 1.77% survival. Acid and alkaline proteolytic activity was detected at hatching, which increased in accordance with the age of the paralarvae. The TOO group had a significant influence on acid proteolytic activity of the paralarvae only at eight DAH; however, the final survival rate obtained in this treatment was slightly higher compared with those fed with the control group.

KEYWORDS:

• Experimental cultivation
• HUFAs
• sucker development
• tuna orbit oil

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the technicians Adrian Celaya, Luis Murillo and Francisco Valenzuela for their help in the collection, transportation and maintenance of adult octopuses. To M. en C. Eloísa Matus Nivón, of Nutricion y Salud Omegamex S.A. de C.V. for providing the tuna orbit oil for Artemia enrichment. Thanks to Dr Luis Fernando Bückle Ramirez for his advice during the experimental cultivation. The authors would also like to thank the reviewers of Molluscan Research for all the valuable suggestions made to improve this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Federal Government of México with regular funding of the Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE) [Project 623151 and 623149].