VERAMARIS OIL AS A FISH OIL REPLACEMENT IN CALIFORNIA YELLOWTAIL Seriola dorsalis

California yellowtail (CYT) Seriola dorsalis is a top candidate species for aquaculture in southern California.  CYT is typically reared on commercial diets whose nutrient profile and ingredient composition rely heavily on fish meal and fish oil.  Here we attempted to replace fish oil with Veramaris oil in the diet of juvenile CYT.  Veramaris oil is a natural oil from marine algae.  The treatment diets for this study included: TRT 1 - Fishmeal Free (poultry by-product meal and fish oil), TRT 2 - Veramaris Oil (poultry by-product meal and Veramaris oil), TRT 3 - Soybean Oil (poultry by-product meal and soybean oil), TRT 4 - Fishmeal Control (fishmeal and fish oil).  Each treatment diet was formulated to contain 45% protein and 15% lipid. CYT juveniles (initial weight 19.95 g) were fed the experimental diets for 64 days.  At the completion of the trial, TRT 4 had the fastest growth, while TRT 1 and TRT 2 had similar growth (Table 1).  Feed conversion ratios (FCR) also show a similar trend.  Survival and fish health were high among all treatments.  Samples were taken to determine proximate composition and fatty acid analysis of both the diets and the fish.  Finally, liver and gut samples from fish from each treatment tank were histologically processed.  At this time the biochemical and histology results cannot be reported because analysis has yet to be completed.  However, based on the growth and FCR results, we have shown that Veramaris oil has good potential to replace fish oil for juvenile CYT.