Effect of Artemia Biomass Enriched with HUFA, PUFA and MUFA Fatty Acids on Fatty Acid Composition, Growth and Qualitative Reproductive Indices of White Shrimp (Litopenaeus Vannamei)

During this study, frozen, lipid-enriched adult Artemia were fed to Litopenaeus vannamei broodstock to investigate the suitability of Artemia as maturation diet for the species and elucidate the role of essential fatty acids in the reproductive performance of the shrimp. Four lipid enrichment levels: PUFA (P group), MUFA (M group), HUFA (H1 and H2 groups), un-enriched (NE group), No-Artemia fed (NA group), were fed to L. vannamei over 45 days. Significant differences in weight gain and specific growth rate were observed. Greatest mean SGR was recorded for shrimp of diet P-group as well as greatest mean final weight on day 45, while the lowest mean SGR was found for shrimp fed Diet NA. The fecundity of the broodstock shrimp fed diets either H1, H2 increased compared with diet NA (P<0.05). Changes in gonado-somatic index (GSI) of broodstock during ovarian maturation was very pronounced, but hepato-somatic index (HSI) changes was no significant differences between the broodstock groups (P>0.05). According to the results, Artemia biomass enriched with oils containing high levels of PUFA can improve growth and HUFA can improve in reproductive efficiency in white shrimp broodstock.