Growth, survival and fatty acid composition of Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879) post larvae fed HUFA-enriched Moina micrura

A 60-day experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of enrichment on fatty acid composition of Moina micrura through lipid emulsions containing highly unsaturated fatty acids and to study the impact of HUFA-enriched Moina on growth, survival and fatty acid composition of post larvae of giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii. Enrichment was done in three differently prepared emulsions containing sunflower oil, cod liver oil and MaxEPA capsules (commercially available) as sources of lipid. The feeding trial to post larvae was conducted using three replicates of four treatments which were fed with three different types of HUFA-enriched Moina and un-enriched Moina (control). The prepared emulsions were found efficient in enriching Moina by increasing the level of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) up to a maximum of 7.31 ± 0.07% and 2.17 ± 0.03%, respectively. Growth rates of post larvae increased (maximum specific growth rate = 3.60 ± 0.02) with increased amount of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (HUFA) in dietary Moina. Survival increased (maximum survival = 80.00 ± 1.65) as the amount of EPA and DHA increased in the respective dietary Moina. HUFA-enriched Moina showed good effect on the fatty acid composition of M. rosenbergii post larvae with respect to EPA and DHA. EPA percentage in post larvae ranged from 7.82 ± 0.13% (in control) to a maximum of 14.94 ± 0.17% (in MaxEPA group). DHA percentage showed similar trend ranging from 2.45 ± 0.14% (in control) to 7.63 ± 0.19% (in MaxEPA group). The present study indicates that, like in other live feeds, the nutritional quality of Moina in relation to fatty acids can also be increased by enrichment which can influence the growth, survival and fatty acid composition of post larvae of freshwater prawn.