Amino acid and fatty acid compositions of various stages of Chanos chanos larvae: Implications for larval feed formulation

Abstract

Amino acid (AA) and fatty acid (FA) composition of the fertilised eggs and different larval stages (at 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and21 days post-hatch, dph) of Chanos chanos was investigated. The total indispensable amino acids (IAA) contributed to55.62% of the total AA in the egg which reduced to 52.54% on 6 dph. The AA profile of C. chanos was found to be rich invaline (7.99%), leucine (7.51%) and lysine (6.98%) and poor in histidine (2.36%) and methionine (2.47%), indicating a highvaline, leucine and lysine requirement. The docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) content recorded for egg, newly hatched larvae(NHL) and 21 dph larvae were 2.77, 1.36 and 1.94 mg g-1, respectively. The reduction of fatty acids (FAs) was found to bevery high in newly hatched larvae (NHL), especially that of DHA (51%), ARA (26%) and EPA (24%), which indicates thesignificance of these FAs during the embryogenesis of milkfish egg. The trend observed during different stages of AAs andFAs content indicates their requirement during the larval period and those values are to be considered while formulatingfeeds for larval stages of milkfish. Keywords: Embryogenesis, Larval feed, Milkfish larvae, Nutrient requirement