Table 15-6. The Major Fatty Acids of the 3-Day-Old 
Brine Shrimp Diet and 25 and 58-Day-Old Silversides 
3-Day-Old 
25-Day-Old 
58-Day-Old 
Brine 
Juvenile 
Juvenile 
Shrimp 
Silversides 
Silversides 
FAME 
(Diet #2) 
(13.05 mm long) 
(22.24 mm long) 
16:0 
11.45 
16.77 
21.05 
16:1 
16.49 
8.35 
12.76 
18:0 
4.10 
8.72 
9.19 
18:1 co9 
34.34 
27.44 
36.87 
1 8:2co6 
4.78 
2.36 
3.19 
1 8:3co3 
4.67 
2.85 
2.26 
20:1 co9 
0.55 
0.56 
0.70 
20:4to6 
3.13 
5.99 
3.79 
20:5co3 
13.31 
7.89 
3.87 
22:5co3 
— 
2.23 
1.73 
22:6co3 
— 
13.67 
1.97 
% oil 
10.00 
12.90 
12.40 
co3/eo6 ratio 
2.27 
3.19 
1.41 
3-day-old brine shrimp diet may lead to critical nutritional problems if used in 
a long term study. 
When compared to the wild fish (Table 15-5), the cultured fish have a far 
lower co3 fatty acid level and much higher level of the co6 acids. The co3/co6 
ratio of the wild fish lipid was 8.0, more than two times the cultured fish 
levels. The wild fish fatty acid profile was similar to the egg and 2-day-old yolk 
sac fry values, as would be expected. In the wild fish the fatty acids 20:5co3 
and 22:6co3 represented about 40 percent of the total fatty acid composition. 
Preferably, the cultured fish should resemble the wild juvenile fish in our 
experiments. 
Artificial Diets 
Since the amino acid profiles of the Atlantic salmon and wild silversides 
were comparable, a commercial salmon diet was tried in the preliminary 
evaluation of the artificial diets. Compared to the brine shrimp fed fish, growth 
and survival in the test diets fed group was very poor. Fish on the salmon type 
diet exhibited some scoliosis. Two factors which could have contributed to this 
223 
