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

Amino acid (AA) and fatty acid (FA) composition of the fertilised eggs and different larval stages (at 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 21 days post-hatch, dph) of Chanos chanos was investigated. The total indispensable amino acids (IAA) contributed to 55.62% 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 in valine (7.99%), leucine (7.51%) and lysine (6.98%) and poor in histidine (2.36%) and methionine (2.47%), indicating a high valine, 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 be very high in newly hatched larvae (NHL), especially that of DHA (51%), ARA (26%) and EPA (24%), which indicates the significance of these FAs during the embryogenesis of milkfish egg. The trend observed during different stages of AAs and FAs content indicates their requirement during the larval period and those values are to be considered while formulating feeds for larval stages of milkfish.