External and
internal morphology, and feeding ability of yellow seahorse Hippocampus
kuda (Bleeker, 1852) early juveniles
Mohd. S.
Kamarudin1,2, N. Romano3, A. Arshad1,2,
N.L.W.S. Wong1,2 and J.C. Teh1*
1Department of
Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400
Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
2International
Institute of Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
71050 Teluk Kemang, Port Dickson, Malaysia
3Aquaculture/Fisheries
Center, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, 1200 North University Drive,
Pine Bluff, AR 71601, USA
*Corresponding Author Email : jun_chin@yahoo.com
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Abstract
Aim:
Despite their well-known strategy of brooding in male pouches, survival of
early juveniles of seahorses still represents a significant bottleneck to its
population survival. This study aimed to address the feeding and digestive
efficiency of early Hippocampus kuda in order to improve their
survival.?
Methodology: The external and gut morphology of H. kuda
juveniles in the immediate period after being released from the brood pouch
(0?9 day-after-birth) were examined and described through histological and
microscopic methods.
Results:?
Unlike premature seahorses with a round-shaped yolk sac attached to their
semi-transparent body, the normal newborns had no external yolk sac but some
yolk residues were observed internally. Although the mouth gape size, mouth
area, height and tail length grew bigger and longer in the older juveniles,
the intestine length increased isometrically with height. Ingested live food
was poorly digested in early juveniles and some Artemia nauplii were
found to be still alive in the excreta.
Interpretation: Overall, the results indicated that the
early feeding of H. kuda was highly inefficient. Depletion of remnant
yolk in H. kuda suggested partial lecithotrophy during the first two
days. These findings provide an important insight for developing nursing methods
for this seahorse species.
Key
words:
Critical period, Digestive tract,? Histology, Lecithotrophy,? Mass mortality
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with the author(s).
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