Activities of digestive enzymes and histology of digestive system during larval development of devil stinger (Inimicus japonicus) |
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| Authors: | Songlin Li Wen Wen Xuxiong Huang Xu Gong Longfeng Feng Naisong Chen |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Key Laboratory of Freshwater Fishery Germplasm Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Lingang New City, Shanghai, China;2. Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Aquaculture, Shanghai, China;3. Aquatic Animal Genetic Breeding Center Collaborative Innovation Center in Shanghai, Shanghai, China |
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| Abstract: | Devil stinger is a valuable demersal scorpaenid fish while the rearing of stinger larvae still relies on live prey. This study was conducted to illustrate the development of the main digestive enzymes and digestive system during larval development of this species to provide evidence for the application of artificial feeds. Enzymatic and histological assays were conducted from 1 day post hatching (dph) to 36 dph in larvae. The result showed that the selected digestive enzyme activities increased significantly after 15 dph. Specifically, the total trypsin activities increased significantly from 18 dph to 33 dph. The total pepsin and amylase activities increased significantly first and thereafter decreased significantly. The lipase activities followed the similar pattern with trypsin. With regard to the histological study, the stinger larvae open their mouth to first feeding at 3 dph and turned into totally exogenous nutritional stage at 6 dph. In addition, mucous membrane, rich in goblet cells, was widely distributed in oesophagus epithelium at 18 dph. The height and amounts of gastric gland in cardia and main body of the stomach increased gradually with the development of stinger larvae after 15 dph. The intestine length of stinger larvae was short, and goblet cell was abundant in anterior intestine after 12 dph, not the posterior intestine. The ontogeny of liver and pancreas started from newly hatched stage, and the differentiation of liver was prior to pancreas. The above findings would provide evidence for the use of artificial feeds from the larval stage of stinger larvae (at least from 21 dph). |
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| Keywords: | devil stinger digestive enzymes digestive system larvae |
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