Significant increase in survival of captive-bred juvenile Banggai cardinalfish Pterapogon kauderni with an essential fatty acid-enriched diet

Pteropogon kauderni is an endemic, direct developing. coral reef fish from Indonesia, which has become very Popular in the aquarium community. During development of a captive breeding program, high frequency of shock syndrome events and associated mortality was observed in juveniles fed a diet of newly hatched Artemia. After about a week post-release, juveniles became extremely sensitive to external stimuli, Such as feeding and turning the lights on. A series of live tests (mean duration = 116 d) were conducted to investigate it possible dietary essential fatty acid deficiency. A significant increase in survival (P < 0.001) and decrease in frequency of shock syndrome events (P < 0.05) were observed in juveniles fed a highly unsaturated fatty acid-enriched diet. Juveniles fed the un-enriched diet Suffered a mean of 1.4 events/ individual, whereas those fed the enriched diet had a significantly lower mean of 0.08 (P < 0.001). Mean mortality fall tests) for juveniles fed the un-enriched diet was 80.7%, whereas it was 5.3% for those fed the enriched diet. No individual fed the enriched diet died after suffering a shock event, whereas in four Out Of five tests several individuals (mean = 2.26) fed the un-enriched diet died a few Minutes after the event. No event was observed during the first week after juvenile release; the mean days at which the first event occurred (all tests) were 26.8 (un-enriched) and 26 (enriched), and the mean week at which the highest frequency of shock events occurred was 4.7 (un-enriched). The results of this study have Particular significance for conservation because of the threatened Status of P. kauderni.