Histological Profile and Fatty Acid Composition in Hepatopancreas of Blue Swimming Crab, Portunus pelagicus (Linnaeus, 1758) at Different Ovarian Maturation Stages

The study of the hepatopancreas structure is important to provide the morphological and molecular information for future research involving the nutrition requirements of Portunus pelagicus culture. Thus, the study of histological characteristics and fatty acid (FA) composition in hepatopancreas of different ovarian maturation stages of the P. pelagicus were investigated. There are five stages in ovarian maturation of P. pelagicus which are: Stage I (immature), Stage II (early maturing), Stage III (advance maturing), Stage IV (mature) and Stage V (spawned/re-maturation/spent stage). The histological study of hepatopancreas showed that the lumens of most of the tubules were irregular-like shape in Stage I, circle-like shape in Stage III and ovul-like shape in Stage IV. A total of 29 types of FA were found in the hepatopancreas of P. pelagicus. The most dominant FA was C16:0 (Palmitic acid) with concentration of 456.10 +/- 266.23 mg/g(38.73 +/- 4.12%) at stage II. Second most dominant FA was C18:0 (Stearic acid) with concentration of 203.99 -/+ 120.28 mg/g (13.97 +/- 1.62%) at stage III and followed by C20:5n3 (Eicosapentanoic acid) with concentration of 131.19 +/- 84.70 mg/g (8.98 +/- 1.13%) at stage III. In conclusion, the tubules structure and FA concentration of hepatopancreas play an important role in reproduction and diet formulation for portunid crab broodstock.