Efecto de la primera alimentación en la supervivencia y el crecimiento de crías de caballito de mar, Hippocampus hippocampus (Linnaeus, 1758)

[EN]Effects of first feeding on survival and growth of Atlantic seahorse juveniles, Hippocampus hippocampus, (Linnaeus, 1758). In this study, two experimental protocols were tested: a first treatment (RA), in which larvae were fed exclusively on rotifers until day 5, and then on Artemia, and a second treatment (A) where larvae were only fed on Artemia. We attempted to improve survival and growth by comparing different diets in the first days of life. The results showed excellent survival (60% average) and growth in juveniles exclusively fed with Artemia, with better values than those obtained by other authors for this species. In comparison, high mortality and poor growth were observed on the first days in larvae fed rotifers.

Importance of dietary n-3 hufa for eye development and cone formation along gilthead seabream sparus aurata larval development.

[EN] Being fish larvae visual feeders, vision plays an important role in larval orientation at first feeding (Blaxter, 1986). Larval trophic behaviour is closely related with the development of the visual capacity, which directly depends on retina organogenesis. In sparids, such as Pagrus major (Kawamura, 1984) and Pagrus auratus (Pankhurst, 1996), the most important changes in the eye structure occur along the lecitotrophic stage as a preparation for prey capture. Neuringer et al.,(1988) has established a critical role for n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in neural and retinal tissue functions in mammals. Similarly, in larval fish there is a high demand of DHA to form nervous membranes. Bell and Dick (1993) found photoreceptors in the eye, rods and cones accumulate and selectively retain DHA in external segments.Bell et al. (1995) found that feeding juvenile herring a DHA poor Artemia diet during the period of rod development resulted in impaired vision at low light intensities, when rod vision is essential.