Nutritional composition of potential zooplankton prey of the spiny lobster phyllosoma (Jasus edwardsii)

Despite the global significance of spiny lobsters, the biology of their planktonic larvae, especially their carnivorous diet, is very poorly understood. Unsuitable diets and feeding regimes are one of the major reasons for consistently high mortalities during larval culture. In an effort to begin to determine the nutritional requirements of phyllosoma larvae of the spiny lobster, Jasus edwardsii, the present study first characterised the proximate composition of 11 previously identified groups of their potential prey. This included gelatinous zooplankton (chaetognaths, ctenophores, tunicates, siphonophores, scyphozoans, heteropods and pteropods), crustacean zooplankton (amphipods, copepods and euphausiids) and fish larvae. The composition of the 54 samples of 30 species of zooplankton ranged over 79.2–98.1% moisture content, and 1.9–54.2% for protein, 0.4–11.2% for carbohydrate, 0.1–27.9% for lipid, and 3.9–76.4% for ash of dry weight. The results showed that, in the most, zooplankton species provide a reliable source of protein. Only a small number of zooplankton had high lipid yield, suggesting that a narrow range of zooplankton species high in lipid are likely to be targeted by late-stage phyllosomas. The results of the present study will be useful as a guide for the development of artificial diets to improve phyllosoma aquaculture.