The potential use of Artemia for larval rearing of mandarin fish (Siniperca chuatsi)

The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of three live feeds for the larvae of the domesticated strain of mandarin fish (Siniperca chuatsi). Larvae of this strain of mandarin fish with salinity activation ingested Artemia nauplii was firstly observed. The larvae at 3 days post hatch (dph) were reared from first feeding to 9 dph and fed on starving (no food supplied), zebrafish (Danio rerio) (newly hatched larvae), Artemia nauplii and Daphnia magna, respectively. The results showed that the highest survival was found in the newly hatched larvae group (41.7 ± 1.5 %), and the lowest growth was found in the Daphnia group, respectively. A high food intake was found in the Artemia nauplii group, and the npy expression between the Artemia nauplii and newly hatched larvae groups had no significant difference (p＞0.05), whereas they were significantly lower than that of the starving group (p＜0.05). At the first feeding day, the activities of amylase, lipase and trypsin and the target of rapamycin (tor) expression in the Artemia nauplii and newly hatched larvae groups were significantly higher than those of the starving group. These results suggested that larvae of this strain of mandarin fish could feed on the newly hatched larvae and Artemia nauplii, and both of them could be digested, but the digestion might be insufficient in the Artemia nauplii group. Together, this study indicates that larvae of this strain of mandarin fish can ingest and digest Artemia nauplii during first-feeding. •Mandarin fish larvae firstly could ingest Artemia nauplii during the first feeding stage.•The expression of npy in Artemia and newly hatched larvae group were lower than the starving group.•The activity of digestive enzymes in the Artemia and newly hatched larvae groups were higher than the starving group.