Dietary influence on the egg production and larval viability in True Sebae Clownfish Amphiprion sebae Bleeker 1853

Abstract

Broodstock nutrition is one of the most important research areas in aquaculture. In this study, sebae clownfish was used to find out the influence of diet on reproductive performance parameters like egg production, fertilization rate, hatchability, and larval quality. The feeds used were of marine origin such as squid, cuttlefish, deep sea prawn, immature and mature mussel. The diets were analyzed for their proximate composition, amino acids profile, fatty acids profile and astaxanthin. The sub-adult fishes were collected from wild and conditioned prior to experiment. Data were collected after initial three spawning to achieve stability in egg production and quality. The egg production was found to be significantly influenced by diet and those fed cuttlefish meat gave the highest number of eggs per clutch (1520±260 eggs). The fertilization rate and hatchability were found to be unaffected by the tested diets. The highest larval survival (62.3±7%) after 12 days post hatching was obtained for fish groups fed deep sea prawn. The dietary carotenoid content was also found to influence the egg and larval pigmentation. The result also indicates the importance of dispensable amino acids in egg production. The role of protein, lipids, and essential fatty acids in the broodstock diets for sebae clownfish are also discussed.