Abstract |
The nutritional values of four diets, (1) newly hatched Artemia, (2) Artemia enriched with highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA), (3) HUFA-enriched Artemia, supplemented with lipid microspheres, and (4) HUFA-enriched Artemia, supplemented with lipid microspheres and the harpacticoid copepod Tigriopus californicus (Baker), were assessed for the epibenthic mysid species Metamysidopsis elongata (Holmes) and Mysidopsis intii (Holmquist). These diets differed in fatty acid composition as determined by gas liquid chromatography. Mysid survival, growth, and the proportion of females brooding offspring were not significantly different among dietary treatments. In contrast, the number of viable offspring produced by both mysid species was greatly improved by adding lipid microspheres and T. californicus to a diet of HUFA-enriched Artemia, probably because both lipid microspheres and T. californicus were rich sources of the fatty acids 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3, compared with that of Artemia diets alone. (Copyright (c) 1991 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.) |