Different dietary protein levels affect meagre (Argyrosomus regius) larval survival and muscle cellularity

The main aim of this work was to test two diets containing different protein levels (55 and 68%) and determine its effect on larval survival, growth, larval composition and muscle cellularity. This work was carried because meagre has been thought to have a higher protein requirement compared to seabream and seabass (Amoedo, 2011). Nevertheless, meagre is usually fed on diets formulated specifically for seabream suggesting that meagre protein requirements are not being satisfied and meagre growth might be constrained. Given that meagre is the species with highest potential to be intensively farmed in the Mediterranean region it is important to formulate specific diets for this species. The results obtained in this work showed that although growth was not affected by the diet, there seems to be a higher potential for growth in the long-term as fibre recruitment was higher when larvae were fed a high protein diet.