Effect of enriched Artemia urmiana with Chaetoceros sp. microalgae on fatty acid composition and antioxidant status of Litopenaeus vannamei

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of enriched Artemia urmiana with Chaetoceros sp. microalgae on fatty acid composition and antioxidant status of Litopenaeus vannamei for two months. This study was conducted in a completely randomized design with 3000 post- larvae of shrimp (with an average weight of 0.36±0.03 g) in four treatments and three replicates (n=250 in each replicate), including a control group fed with un-enriched Artemia nauplius, other groups (treatment 2, 3, and 4) fed with Artemia nauplius enriched with Chaetoceros sp. microalgae with 442×10⁴, 348×10⁴ and 120×10⁴ cell/mL densities respectively. The results showed that at the end of the experiment, the highest EPA (6.95± 0.35%) and DHA (7.91±1.07 %), arachidonic acid (AA; 6.28± 1.02%), gamma-Linolenic acid (0.87±0.12 %) and stearic acid (9.75±0.15 %) was showed in treatment 4. Also, the highest, superoxide dismutase (SOD, 26.12±2.18 Unit/mL), glutathione Peroxidase (GPx, 83.10±4.80 Unit/ mL), and catalase (CAT, 5.38±0.12 Unit/mL) shown in treatment 4 which showed significant difference compared to other treatments (P<0.05). Overall, the results of this study showed that treatments fed with enriched Artemia nauplius with different densities of Chaetoceros sp. microalgae showed better fatty acid composition and antioxidant status compared to those of the control. And the use of enriched Artemia nauplius with a density 120× 10⁴ cell/mL of Chaetoceros sp. microalgae are recommended in Litopenaeus vanname post larvae.