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Feeding effect of Alternanthera philoxeroides and Elodea nuttallii on crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) growth, hepatopancreas enzyme activity, and muscle quality

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Abstract

In order to clarify the nutritional function of Alternanthera philoxeroides and Elodea nuttallii on crayfish. Under the condition of 50% pellet feeding, the effects of the two aquatic grasses as food sources on the growth and muscle quality of juvenile crayfish were studied, and strategies to improve the material utilization efficiency of the aquaculture system were explored. The results of feeding trial showed that feeding aquatic grasses no significantly affect the survival and body length growth of crayfish, but the body weight in the control group was significantly higher than that in the 50% pellet feeding, E. nuttallii and the A. philoxeroides group (p < 0.05). The muscle weight, hepatopancreatic protease activity, total amino acids, and flavor amino acids of crayfish in the control group were not significantly different from that in the E. nuttallii group, but they were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that in the A. philoxeroides and the 50% pellet feeding groups. Feeding aquatic grasses significantly improves the hepatopancreas weight and amylase activity of crayfish, but it was significantly detrimental to alkaline phosphatase activity. Muscle fatty acids (C11:0, C13:0, C17:2, C18:1n-12, and C18:3n-3) decreased significantly (p < 0.05) after feeding A. philoxeroides. However, there were no significant changes in total unsaturated fatty acid and total saturated fatty acid content among the groups. Above results suggest that E. nuttallii as an auxiliary feed can promote the growth of crayfish and improve the amino acid composition of muscle in the process of crayfish aquaculture, while the A. philoxeroides has a poor effect on crayfish.

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Data availability

The authors declare that data and materials are available upon request from the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

WGR:

Body weight gain rate

LGR:

Body length growth rate

SR:

Survival rate

HI:

Hepatopancreas index

FCR:

Feed coefficient rate

AKP:

Alkaline phosphatase

ACP:

Acidic phosphatase

TAA:

Total amino acids

TEAA:

Total essential amino acids

Σn-3:

Total n-3 unsaturated fatty acids

Σn-6:

Total n-6 unsaturated fatty acids

SFA:

Saturated fatty acid

MUFA:

Monounsaturated fatty acids

PUFA:

Polyunsaturated fatty acids

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Acknowledgements

We thank International Science Editing (http://www.internationalscienceediting.com) for editing this manuscript.

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the Jiangsu Province Key R&D Program (Modern Agriculture) (grant number BE2021336), the Jiangsu Province Agricultural Independent Innovation Fund (grant number CX(21)1008), the Fund of Lixiahe District Agricultural Institute of Jiangsu (grant number SJ(21)201), and the Jiangsu Province Modern Agricultural Industry Technology System (grant number JATS[2022]233).

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Author notes

  1. Leiming Wu and Guangming Han contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Lixiahe District Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Yangzhou, 225007, China

    Leiming Wu, Guangming Han, Jiahong Zhang, Shouhong Wang, Baoli Qin, Xiangming Kou, Linjie Ma, Jianhua Bi, Qin Yuan & Hejun Tang

  2. Ecological Agricultural Engineering Technology Research Center of Jiangsu, Jiangsu Lixiahe District Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Yangzhou, 225008, China

    Linjie Ma, Jianhua Bi & Hejun Tang

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  1. Leiming Wu
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Contributions

L. Wu, G. Han, J. Zhang, and X. Kou wrote the main manuscript text. S. Wang, B. Qin, and L. Ma prepared Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4 and Table 3. J. Bi prepared Fig. 5. Q. Yuan prepared Table 4. H. Tang prepared Table 5. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiangming Kou.

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Ethical approval

The animals in this experiment were treated according to the guidelines for the care and use of experimental animals of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Jiangsu Lixiahe District Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Yangzhou, China, under examination and approval number JAAS-ACUC-2021–015. The test animals were non-endangered animals and were artificially propagated juveniles.

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Wu, L., Han, G., Zhang, J. et al. Feeding effect of Alternanthera philoxeroides and Elodea nuttallii on crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) growth, hepatopancreas enzyme activity, and muscle quality. Aquacult Int 32, 299–314 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10499-023-01156-x

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