problem were the leaching of dietary components from the artificial diet when 
it became water soaked, or perhaps an inadequate lipid composition (soybean 
oil). In reference to the latter point, the fatty acid composition of the artificial 
diet is shown in Table 15-7 along with the spectrum for soybean oil and that of 
silversides cultured on the salmon type diet. The soybean oil diet and the oil 
resemble each other to some degree, since 16:0, 18:lco9, and 18:2 oj 6 are the 
major fatty acids of both analyses. Likewise, silversides fed this artificial diet 
closely resemble the lipid make-up of the diet they were fed. However, it is 
evident that fish fed the artificial diet were not similar in fatty acid 
composition to the wild fish, and thus this diet had not accomplished the 
major goal of providing a laboratory cultured fish of similar biochemical 
composition to the wild fish (Table 15-5). 
Based on the biochemical analyses of the diets and cultured fish, and the 
results of poor growth and survival, the salmon diet was modified by the 
addition of a marine oil (cod liver oil). The soybean oil based diet was again fed 
to verify past results. In addition to these two diets, the live brine shrimp diet 
was used along with: a freeze-dried form of brine shrimp, a wild plankton diet, 
Tetra Marin—a commercial aquarium food, and two semi-purified diets with 
various amino acid compositions (Table 15-3). The cultured fish were again 
analyzed for protein and lipid composition. 
The growth and survival results of fish fed these experimental diets are 
presented in Table 15-8. The live brine shrimp diet gave the best survival (97 
Table 15-7. The Major Fatty Acids of Soybean Oil, 
an Artificial Diet (#7) with a Soybean Base, 
and Silversides Cultured on the Diet 
FAME 
Artificial Diet 
With Soybean Oil 
Soybean 
Oil 
Silversides Fed 
the Artificial Diet 
(13.97 mm long) 
16:0 
13.05 
12.52 
17.43 
16:1 
2.43 
— 
3.74 
18:0 
2.45 
4.69 
7.41 
18:1co9 
36.12 
19.25 
36.37 
18: 2cj6 
29.81 
54.90 
21.22 
18:3co3 
1.88 
7.83 
0.51 
20:1 co9 
2.94 
— 
2.95 
20:5co3 
1.62 
— 
— 
22:6co3 
2.08 
— 
4c 76 
go3/go3 
0.21 
0.20 
0.36 
224 
