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Assessing Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Essentiality in Florida Pompano
Author(s) -
Jackson Christopher J.,
Trushenski Jesse T.,
Schwarz Michael H.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
north american journal of aquaculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.432
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1548-8454
pISSN - 1522-2055
DOI - 10.1002/naaq.10140
Subject(s) - polyunsaturated fatty acid , fish oil , biology , feed conversion ratio , weight gain , menhaden , food science , soybean oil , fatty acid , zoology , biochemistry , body weight , fish <actinopterygii> , fishery , endocrinology
We evaluated the growth performance and fatty acid composition of juvenile Florida Pompano Trachinotus carolinus that were fed diets containing different combinations of n‐3 and n‐6 polyunsaturated fatty acids ( PUFA s) to assess the relative importance of C 18 PUFA s and long‐chain ( LC ) PUFA s in meeting the essential fatty acid requirements of this species. Juvenile fish (mean ± SD =47.4 ± 0.6 g/fish) were fed diets containing different combinations of n‐3 and n‐6 PUFA s: a positive control containing menhaden fish oil, a negative control containing hydrogenated soybean oil, and experimental diets containing hydrogenated soybean oil amended with ethyl esters of 18:3(n‐3); 18:3(n‐3) and 18:2(n‐6); 22:6(n‐3); 22:6(n‐3) and 20:4(n‐6); or 20:5(n‐3), 22:6(n‐3), and 20:4(n‐6). After 7 weeks, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, and specific growth rate were significantly greater among fish that were fed the positive control feed in comparison with those that received the negative control feed. The addition of n‐3 and/or n‐6 PUFA s to the negative control formulation did not significantly improve performance in any case, although numeric improvements observed for weight gain and feed conversion ratio appeared to suggest some advantage from providing a complement of both n‐3 and n‐6 LC ‐ PUFA s in the diet. Fatty acid composition varied significantly between all tissues, generally reflecting dietary fatty acid profiles. Tissue fatty acid profiles suggest that Florida Pompano have some ability to elongate and desaturate fatty acids and may be able to survive on diets containing C 18 PUFA s, but they perform optimally when provided with LC ‐ PUFA s directly.