Diet and eyestalk ablation induced changes in lipid and fatty acid composition of female spiny lobster Panulirus homarus (Linnaeus, 1758)

One of the obstacles to successful spiny lobster farming is the lack of a suitable formulated feed to rear early juveniles to marketable size. An experiment was carried out to examine the effect of diet and eyestalk ablation on the fatty acid profiles of the female spiny lobster (Panulirus homarus). The normal and ablated juvenile lobsters were stocked separately in three FRP tanks, each holding 1000 I filtered seawater. Experimental (pelleted feed) and control (green mussel) diets were fed ad libitum daily at 1830 hrs for 30 clays. At the end of the 30 days trial, the total lipid content was high in the hepatopancreas and muscle tissue (162.2+/-8.1 and 110.2+/-5.8 mg g(-1) respectively) of unablated lobsters fed with pellet diet compared to that of green mussel fed lobsters (104.6+/-6.1 and 76.4+/-4.7 mg g(-1), respectively). The fatty acid composition of the hepatopancreas and muscle of ablated and unablated lobsters reflected the respective dietary treatments. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUPA) content was high in the muscle of unablated lobsters fed pellet diet (21.94+/-0.36%) compared to that of other groups. The formulated diet played a major role in maintaining the essential fatty acids levels, especially PUFA in the muscle tissue of juvenile lobsters.