Effect of diets containing artemia enriched with unsaturated fatty acids and vitamin C on angel fish Pterophyllum scalare propagation

Abstract

<em>Artemia urmiana</em> was added to diets of angel fish <em>Pterophyllum scalare</em> and various factors including fecundity, fertilization rate, hatching rate and larvae survival rate and interval between spawning and total time for the eight spawning cycles were determined.Broodstock angel fish (18 pairs) were kept separately in a 50 L aquarium. Diets containing artemia and fatty acids were most effective with the average rate of fecundity of 378 eggs, 98.9% fertilization, 97.5% hatching for fish fed the live <em>Artemia urmiana</em> + fatty acid diet. <em>Artemia urmiana</em> + fatty acid emulsion + 0.5 g vitamin C resulted in the highest larvae survival (93.3%) which was also significantly higher than the control group (<em>P</em> < 0.05). The shortest interval for the eight spawning cycles (43 days, 6 day intervals) was for fish fed the <em>Artemia urmiana</em> + fatty acid + 1 g vitamin C diet. Feeding live food reduced the time for the eight spawning cycles evaluated and increasing fecundity, fertilization rate, hatching rate and larvae survival rate. Adding <em>Artemia urmiana</em> decreased this time between spawns and would be a useful ingredient to include in diets for broodstock in continuous spawning operations and is likely to be economical for broodstock operations because of increased efficiency even though the feed cost would be higher.