EFFECTS OF DIETARY LIPID LEVELS ON GROWTH, SURVIVAL AND BODY FATTY ACID COMPOSITION OF GROUPER LARVAE, Epinephelus coioides AND Epinephelus lanceolatus

Abstract

Two feeding experiments were conducted to study the effects of dietary lipid levels on the growth, muscle fatty acid profile and survival of 0.14 g Epinephelus coioides and 0.09 g Epinephelus lanceolatus larvae. Five semi-purified diets included 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% lipid were formulated. Each diet was randomly assigned to three replicate groups of grouper larvae. The final weight, weight gain percentage and survival of two grouper species fed diet without supplemented lipid were significantly lower than those of larvae fed treatment diets. E. coioides had lower weight gain percentage than E. lanceolatus. The weight gain percentages of two grouper species fed diets included 5% to 20% lipid showed no significant difference, respectively. Based on the broken-line regression analysis of weight gain percentage of E. coioides and E. lanceolatus, the optimum dietary lipid requirements were 95 and 75 g lipid /kg diet, respectively.