Octopus maya has been recognized as having a high potential for commercial cultivation. Various studies have allowed the development of a food formulation based on squid and crab meat for this species (Martínez et al., 2014; Gallardo et al, 2020). However, this diet can become expensive, which is why the present work seeks to replace these inputs with fish waste. For this, 3 diets (in triplicate) of partial and total replacement of squid and crab with fish waste were tested: CT) Control (freeze-dried squid and crab); partial replacement (DPR) and total replacement (DTR).
Octopuses 75 days old (DPH, 5g) from a single spawning were used, maintained with the control diet. Chac chi (Haemulon plumieri) fish waste was homogenized and mixed with vitamins and minerals, gelatin and crab protein hydrolyzate. The experiment lasted 43 d in rectangular tanks of 2 x 1.5 x 0.4 m with recirculating seawater and controlled conditions. 1” (5 cm) PVC pipes were used as shelters and fed 3 times a day.
The control diet allowed good growth and survival, whose values were higher than those observed in the octopuses maintained with the other diets (Table 1). However, both the growth and the survival of the octopuses subjected to the diets with the waste showed a great variation, which influenced that there were no differences between treatments with the applied statistic (ANOVA) (Table 1).
The results show that the diets formulated with “Chac chi” fish waste do not exceed the nutritional quality of the control diet whose inputs are freeze-dried, however, it could be a good alternative by modifying the feeding frequency in future experiments.
References
Gallardo P.*, ..., and Rodriguez S. 2020. Effect of different proportions of crab and squid in semi-moist diets for Octopus maya juveniles. Aquaculture 524 735233.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2020.735233
Martínez R., … and Carlos Rosas. 2014. Growth, survival and physiological condition of Octopus maya when fed a successful formulated diet. Aquaculture 426-427: 310 – 317.