Effects of prey nutritional quality on the growth and survival of juvenile cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis (Linnaeus, 1758)

This investigation examined the effect of prey condition on the growth and survival of juvenile cuttlefish ( Sepia officinalis ). In the first group, cuttlefish were fed with daily captured live Palaeomonetes varians from the wild [daily prey (DP)], the second group was fed 5 days stocked and starved P. varians [starved prey (SP)], while in the third group, cuttlefish were fed 8 days stocked P. varians fed with an artificial diet [fed prey (FP)]. Mean instantaneous growth rate (IGR) was 2.8±1% body weight day⁻¹ (bw day⁻¹), 3.3±1.1% bw day⁻¹ and 4.9±0.5% bw day⁻¹ for SP, DP and FP respectively. At the end of the experiment, final weight gain ( W _g) was 121±21.6%, 153.8±17.3% and 295±29.8% for SP, DP and FP respectively. No significant differences were found ( P >0.05) between growth curves for every group tested, or for the food conversions between those same groups ( P >0.05), but statistical differences ( P <0.05) were found in IGR between DP vs. FP and SP vs. FP. Mortality was 2 and 1 for SP and DP respectively. Results indicate that prey starvation should not be considered when feeding juvenile cuttlefish, as prey can only be stocked if proper artificial diets are provided, to obtain optimal growth.