In addition to the excellent local market attained as a result of the high quality of its flesh ,the pejerrey
is also very appreciated by foreign consumers .important
advances were achieved during last years in relation to the larvae and
caged culture that resulted in the current rearing of this fish species at
a commercial scale
the aquaculture
activity of the pejerrey has not been fully developed yet due to,
among others, the slow growth rates showed in captivity (Miranda
et al., 2006). This impaired growth ismainly a consequence of the scarce
knowledge about the nutritional requirements of larvae and juveniles of
this fish species, representing one of the main limitations for its
potential rearing at a commercial scale. So far, very few studies have
attempted the elucidation of the physiologic and endocrine response
of pejerrey larvae and juveniles to shifts in dietary formulations, as
well as their influence over somatic growth
The aimof the present studywas to elucidate the effects of increasing
the lipid levels of the pejerrey juveniles feeds on the growth performance,
body composition and digestive enzymes activities. This work
complements additional studies focused on the response of the GH/IGF
system and muscle growth biomarkers in fish subjected to the same dietary
treatments (P. Gómez-Requeni and L.F. Canosa, unpublished data).
To address these issues,we developed a small-scale experiment in which
pejerrey juveniles were fed with formulated isoproteic diets (approx.