Growth Response and Fatty Acid Composition of Juvenile Procambarus clarkii Fed Different Sources of Dietary Lipid

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding various sources of dietary lipid on weight gain, feed conversion, survival and fatty acid composition of juvenile red swamp crawfish, Procam-barus clarkii. Six semi-purified diets containing vitamin-free casein, defatted soybean meal, 0. 5% choline chloride, 0. 5% glycine and 0. 5% cholesterol were supplemented with 6. 0% of either anchovy oil, linseed oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, safflower oil or pork lard. Each diet was fed to crawfish (3. 07±0. 21 g average weight) in three replicate aquaria for 60 days. Survival rate, weight gain and feed conversion were best for crawfish fed the diet containing anchovy oil. Crawfish fed the linseed oil diet had the second highest weight gain, followed by crawfish on soybean oil, repaseed oil, safflower oil and pork lard diets, respectively. Feed conversion values were a reflection of weight gain. Results showed that both n-6 and n-3 fatty acids are dietary essential for juvenile Procambarus clarkii,