• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.275-281
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• 2004

The present study was conducted to evaluate dietary requirements for essential fatty acids (EFAs) such as linoleic acid (LA, l8:2n-6), -lenolenic acid (LNA, 18:3n-3), or docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n-3) and arachidonic acid (ARA, 20:4n-6) in juvenile eel Anguilla japonica cultured in a recirculating system for 16 weeks. The experimental diets contained 50% crude protein, 10% crude lipid and 3800 kcal/kg energy.Brown fish meal and blood meal were used as the main protein sources, while coconut oil, com oil and linseed oil were used as the lipid source to yield target fatty acids ratios. At the end of the trial, the effects of essential fatty acids supplementation on weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), feeding efficiency (FE), proximate composition andwhole body fatty acids contents were examined. WG, SGR, and FEof eels fed diet D2, D3, was significantly higher (P<0.05) than those of fish fed the other diets. Whole body HUFA concentration of eels fed D 1 was significantly lower (P<0.05) than those fed the other diets. HUFA/SFA (saturated fatty acids) ratio of whole body in eels fed diets D2, D3 and D6 were significantly higher than that of eels fed diet D1 (P<0.05).DHA/EPA ratio of whole body in eels fed diet D7was significantly higher than those fed the other diets; and eels fed diet D5 showed the lowest DHA/EPA ratio among all the dietary treatments (P<0.05).Based on the experimental results, we concluded that LNA (n-3) and LA (n-6) were necessary for optimum growth of juvenile eel, and the dietary requirement of LNA and LA were 0.35∼0.5% and 0.5∼0.65%, respectively.