Effects of using Artemia urmiana enriched with N-3 HUFA in first feeding of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) larvae

Effects of using n-3 HUFA-enriched Artemia and non-enriched Artemia as the starter food for growth and survival of rainbow trout larvae compared to commercial concentrated food were investigated in this study. The larvae with average weight of 92.9 mg were fed for 20 days with four food treatments included of commercial concentrated food, newly hatched Artemia, enriched Artemia, and mixture of enriched Artemia and concentrated food. At the end of experiment, the highest weight gain percentage was 104.4% in those larvae fed with enriched Artemia (p< 0.05). The highest survival rate was 96.5 % observed in larvae fed with mixture of enriched Artemia and commercial concentrated food (P<0.05). Larvae of third treatment that were fed with enriched Artemia with a survival rate of 98.9 %±1.9 under stress condition of low pH and survival rate of 66.5%±3.7 under stress condition of higher pH in rearing environment, were the most resistant larvae against stress resulting from pH fluctuation (P