Optimal salinity for rearing Chinese black sleeper (Bostrychus sinensis) fry

- B. sinensis fry exhibited higher specific growth rates at lower salinities of 5 and 15 ppt.
- The fry reared at 15 ppt exhibited lower feed intake and higher food conversion efficiency than those reared at 5 ppt.
- Lowest gill Na+-K+-ATPase activity was found at 15 ppt, suggesting a lower energy expenditure on osmoregulation.
- The optimal salinity for rearing was 15 ppt, and IGF-1 might serve as a hyperosmoregulatory hormone.

The Chinese black sleeper (Bostrychus sinensis) is a commercially important fish in southeastern China, but the effects of salinity on the growth of B. sinensis fry remain unclear. In the present study, the three month-old B. sinensis fry were reared for 5 weeks at 5, 15, 25 and 35 parts per thousand (ppt) salinities to evaluate the effects of salinity on the survival rate, specific growth rate, condition factor, feed intake (FI), food conversion efficiency (FCE), plasma osmolality, plasma Cl− concentration and the gill Na+-K+-ATPase (NAK) activities. In addition, since the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system plays important roles in osmoregulation and promoting growth in teleosts, the complete B. sinensis insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (igf-1r) gene was cloned and igf-1r mRNA levels in the muscle and gill were measured at the end of this experiment. Our results showed that the fry reared at lower salinities (5 and 15 ppt) grew significantly faster than those at higher salinities (25 and 35 ppt), and the fry reared at 15 ppt exhibited lower FI and higher FCE than those reared at 5 ppt. A typical 'U-shaped' pattern of gill NAK activity levels with the lowest one at 15 ppt was observed, suggesting that a lower energy expenditure on osmoregulation at this level of salinity. The length of the complete igf-1r cDNA sequence was 6864 bp, and it had a wide range of tissue expression including muscle and gill. After 5 weeks of rearing, muscle igf-1r mRNA levels were similar among the four salinity groups, while the gill igf-1r mRNA level at 5 ppt was significantly higher than that at 15 ppt. Taken together, the results from the present study indicated that the optimal salinity for rearing B. sinensis fry was 15 ppt, and that IGF-1 might serve as a hyperosmoregulatory hormone in long-term low salinity acclimation in B. sinensis.