Effect of temperature on food intake and digestion of Artemia in Lophiosilurus alexandri larvae

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to elucidate the effect of temperature on food intake and time for digestion in larvae of Lophiosilurus alexandri. An experiment was performed with four constant temperatures (23°C, 26°C, 29°C, and 32°C), four ages (8, 13, 18, and 23 days post-hatching (DPH)) and eight sampling times (5, 15, 30, 45, 60, 120, 180, and 300 minutes after feeding). The effect of temperature was more evident at 18 and 23 DPH. Due to the increase in age and temperature, there was a decrease in the time to reach the highest rate of digested nauplii. In addition, the larvae were estimated to ingest up to 0.30 ± 0.10 MJ/larva at 32°C in the first meal of the day. Temperatures of 29°C and 32°C provided the most satisfactory results for intake, digestion rate, and intake as percentage of live weight in one meal.

KEYWORDS:

• Larviculture
• live food
• stomach contents
• pacamã

Consent to participle

All names in author list have been involved in various stages of experimentation or writing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics approval

The experiment was carried out at Laboratório de Aquacultura of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (LAQUA), Brazil, and was approved by the Comitê de Ética em Uso de Animais (Ethics Committee on Animal Use) of UFMG (protocol 153/2013).

Availability of data and material

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the Corresponding author: Dr. Ronald Kennedy Luz upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The present research was funded by CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – [CNPq 401117/2014-6 and PQ CNPq-305048/2015-5]); CAPES [326] (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior); and FAPEMIG (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais).