Nutritional stress legacy in the shrimp Palaemon varians and its implications for aquaculture production

Abstract

The Atlantic ditch shrimp Palaemon varians Leach, 1814 is an attractive candidate for caridean shrimp aquaculture production. However, the effects of nutritional stress, in terms of variable food quality and feeding frequency, need to be further elucidated as a viable strategy to improve the production of this species and take advantage of potential mechanisms associated with compensatory growth. As so, the growth performance, time to metamorphosis, and fatty acid (FA) profile of larvae and post-larvae (PL) of P. varians exposed to different nutritional stress scenarios were evaluated. Overall, after experiencing nutritional stress, larvae and PL used the energy from high quality and unrestricted food to molt until the next stage instead of increasing their biomass, as well as to increase their FA contents. Repetitive fasting and feeding may therefore be a good strategy to improve the production of P. varians, at least until the juvenile stage, as this species displays compensatory growth beyond the life stage that experienced feeding restriction.

Keywords

• Compensatory growth
• Carry-over effects
• Fatty acids
• Feeding restriction