Effect of Dietary Lipid Sources and Their Combinations on Growth and Fatty Acid Composition of Milkfish (Chanos chanos) Larvae

Background: The success of larval rearing is greatly influenced by first feeding regimes and the nutritional quality of weaning diets, with dietary lipids being recognized as one of the most important nutritional factors that affect larval growth and survival. Reports are scanty on milkfish larval nutrition and growth and survival unlike other marine species. Methods: In this investigation during 2020, five larval diets were prepared with 40 g kg-1 of entirely fish oil (F4), corn oil (C4) or fish oil and corn oil in 3:1 (F3C1), 2:2 (F2C2) and 1:3 (F1C3) ratios. Each diet was fed to triplicate groups of milkfish larvae (45 mg) in a flow-through rearing system for 42 days. Result: A growth indices were highest in the F3C1 group, followed by F2C2, F4 and other dietary treatments. The whole-body fatty acid profile was found to change significantly with increasing fish oil replacement with corn oil, i.e., the n-3 polyunsaturated and saturated fatty acid proportions decreased linearly, while the n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids content increased. Overall, this study reveals that growth and survival of milkfish is dependent on dietary lipid source or combinations that meet the essential fatty acid requirements during the early life stages.