Enrichment of Daphnia magna with fish and canola oils on growth and survival of the Caspian kutum larvae

A 14-days period experiment of larval first feeding was conducted to investigate the effects of Daphnia magna enriched with cod liver and canola oils on growth and survival of the Caspian kutum larvae. The feeding trial of the Kutum (Rutilus kutum) larvae with initial weight of 52.6±2.11 mg at density of 10 No L-1 based on completely randomized design with three replications for each treatment as follows: 1) non-enriched Daphnia, 2) enriched Daphnia with cod liver oil and 3), and enriched Daphnia with canola oil. Results showed that body weight and specific growth rate of larvae fed with enriched Daphnia were significantly higher than larvae fed with non-enriched Daphnia (p<0.05). However, no significant difference was observed in the survival rate between the treatments (p>0.05). Maximum and minimum levels of SGR were observed in the larvae fed with Daphnia magna enriched with canola oil (8.50±0.01) and non-enriched Daphnia (7.50±1.12), respectively. The present study indicates that canola oil can be replaced with fish oil for enrichment of Daphnia for feeding the Caspian kutum larvae.