Abstract
To improve the understanding of the incidence of skeletaldeformities in Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis), a feedingtrial was carried out to evaluate the effect of increasing dietaryarachidonic acid (ARA) levels during theArtemiafeedingperiod on larval growth and skeletogenesis. Larvae were fedfrom 8 to 50 days post hatching (dph) withArtemianaupliienriched with three different levels of ARA: ARA-Low, ARA-Medium and ARA-High (1.0, 4.5 and 7.0% ARA of total fattyacids, respectively). Increasing levels of dietary ARA did notaffect significantly the survival. However, it influenced growth;larvae from the ARA-M group presented the highest values offinal standard length and dry weight (11.36 ± 0.47 mm and5.86 ± 1.06 mg at 50 dph, respectively) and larvae from theARA-H group the lowest ones (9.53 ± 0.27 mm and2.47 ± 0.26 mg at 50 dph). The skeleton of larvae fed theARA-M diet tended to be more calcified at 15 dph than that oflarvae fed ARA-L and ARA-H diets. Larvae from the ARA-M group tended to show a higher incidence of fusion ofhypurals 3 and 4 (34.4 ± 3.1%) at 50 dph than the larvaefrom the other groups (18.7 ± 1.6%, in average). The latterresults reflected a trend to a higher degree of skeletaldevelopment rather than a deformity, this being in agreementwith the higher larval growth of this group. Besides, ARAlevels did not affect significantly the incidence of total skeletaldeformities (41.4 ± 1.5% in average). Larvae from all dietarytreatments mostly displayed fusions of the vertebra 43 and 44(32.2 ± 1.3% in average). The amount of 4.5% of total fattyacid of dietary ARA duringArtemiafeeding period promotedthe best growth and proper skeletogenesis in Senegalese sole larvae.