Use of different commercial Artemia sp. Enrichements in Octopus Vulgaris, paralarval rearing at initial planctonic phase: effects on growth, survival and fatty acid composition of the paralarvae

[EN] Octopus "paralarvae", are planktonic, swim actively and have high metabolic rates, requiring large quantities of live prey of adequate motility and nutritional quality ( Iglesias et al., 2000; Navarro and Villanueva, 2000, 2003). During the planktonic phase, they undergo strong morphological changes, after which the octopuses start settling to the bottom. The potential of Octopus vulgaris as candiadate for diversification of marine aquacultures are mainly due to its high food conversion rate and fast growth.( Iglesias et al 2006). Despite the research effort taken until now, paralarval rearing of O. vulgaris still suffers high mortalities which limited the industrial culture of this species. The main problems in the paralarval rearing stages are the high mortality rates and poor growth. These are attributed to the lack of standardized culture techniques and nutritional deficiencies in the diet of paralarvae, especially in n-3 highly unsaturated fatty acids (n-3 HUFA). The objective if this experience was to test different commercial live prey enrichment to improve nutritional quality of the artemia.

Growth and fatty acid composition of Octopus vulgaris fed different diets based on bogue (Boops boops) in comparison to wild individuals

[EN] Octopus vulgaris is a suitable candidate to diversify marine aquaculture (Iglesias et al., 2000; Vaz Pires et al. 2004). Actually, wild sub-adults are on-growing in floating cages showing promising results (Chapela et al., 2006; Rodríguez et al., 2006). Even though octopus industrial development is still limited, mainly associated to the dependence of wild catch individuals for ongrowing (Iglesias et al., 2007) and a lack of an appropriate formulated diet (García García and Cerezo, 2006). In addition, essential macronutrient requirements for this species are still not well known. Used of discarded bogue as single food for Octopus on-growth results in similar growth than co-fed diets with the crab (Portunus pelagic). FA content of Muscle and DG showed important ARA content, suggesting the important functions of this FA in this specie.