Improving co-feeding strategies for Neotropical green terror cichlid (<i>Aequidens rivulatus</i>) larvae with lecithin-enriched <i>Artemia franciscana</i> nauplii: Effects on survival, growth performance and body composition

Abstract

The effects of feeding on a commercial diet and lecithin-enriched (EN) Artemia franciscana nauplii for improving co-feeding strategies of Neotropical green terror cichlid (Aequidens rivulatus) larvae were conducted. For this purpose, eight groups of fish in triplicates were assigned with two different diets (unenriched Artemia [UN] and EN Artemia) and four feeding regimes (1, 5, 10 and 25 days feeding with UN and EN diets and then a 10% daily replacement Artemia nauplii with commercial diet). The crude lipid (21.4%) and total polar lipid (12.96% of total crud lipid) levels significantly increased in enriched Artemia nauplii (p < 0.05). The highest amount of saturated fatty acids (SFA) were in enriched and UN Artemia nauplii (41.74% and 49.64% respectively) but the highest level of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) (25.69%) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) (49.11%) were obtained in commercial diet. Growth performance of fish fed 10 EN and 5 EN had significantly higher values of total weight (120.67, 120.31 mg), %WG (584.48, 580.50%) and SGR (7.69, 7.67%) respectively (p < 0.05). Nevertheless, fish fed 25 EN had significantly higher FCE (190.4%), PER (3.95) and NPU (202.5), in comparison with other groups. In terms of body composition, the EN Artemia nauplii led to increased lipid contents in 25 EN, 10 EN and 5 EN treatments. In conclusion, the results of this study revealed that feeding regimes of 10 EN and 5 EN could improves survival and growth performance of Neotropical green terror cichlid, A. rivulatus larvae.