The effect of dietary docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n-3) on photoreceptor abundance, rhodopsin expression and growth in developing gilthead sea bream (<i>Sparus aurata</i>) larvae

This study determined the effect of prey DHA on larval gilthead sea bream (GSB; Sparus aurata ) photoreceptor abundance, rhodopsin expression, and growth performance. It was carried out in a twenty-eight 400 l conical tank system that stocked with 100 viable GSB eggs/l/tank. allowed testing 4 levels rotifer DHA; 0.99 (Low; L), 1.9 (Intermediate low; I-L), 3.2 high; I-H) 12.1(High; H) mg DHA/g DW rotifer, which were fed (10 rotifers/ml) to 3-16 DPH larvae. These diets continued be offered 17-34 fish, although these larvae predominantly enriched Artemia nauplii treatments at concentration from 0.1 nauplii/ml nauplii/ml, depending age. resulted rotifer-Artemia ranges: 0.99-0.0 (L), 1.9-2.6 (I-L), 3.2-7.2 (I-H), 12.1-11.77 (H) DW. The ranges tested replicates 7 tanks per treatment. Increasing significantly (P&lt;0.0001) improved TL, an exponential manner, throughout rearing. 34 markedly (P&lt;0.05) enhanced dietary inclusion rotifers Artemia. There significant (P &lt; 0.005) dose dependent range abundance cells retina gene expression upregulated age (P&lt;0.0001). established link between level led vision, acquisition, developing