Ecophysiology of the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis L; effect of different microalgae diets and ration on broodstock conditioning

Abstract

Three diets based on three microalgae species (Tetraselmi ssuecica, Isochrysis galbana, and Chaetoceros calcitrans) and three feeding rations (1%, 2%, and 3%) were used to understand the ecophysiology of the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis during Broodstock conditioning. Generally, mussels increase their consumption regarding food availability for all diets, and it is evident that the highest consumption was recorded with a feed ratio of 3%. During the study, I. galbana and C. calcitrans strains show the high consumption (1.58 µg. g-1. h–1 ±0.00) and (1.58µg. g-1. h–1 ±0.00) compared with T. suecica (1.542 µg. g-1. h–1 ±0.023) recorded at 3% food ration of monospecific diets. Same results were recorded for ingestion but with great learning for I. galbana in triscpecific diet (0.70 µg. g-1. h–1 ±0.052) compared to C. calcitrans(0.36 µg. g-1. h–1 ±0.037) and T. suecica (0.25 µg. g-1. h–1 ±0.126), respectively.The analysis of ANOVA has shown that both diet and food availability affect significantly the ingestion (F = 30.9, df = 2, p < 0.001 and F = 4.4, df = 6, p < 0.001) during mussel conditioning.