Literature review on juvenile seahorse aquaculture/fish nutrition study

Literature review on juvenile seahorse aquaculture/fish nutrition study

Title of the dissertation: “Optimization of live prey enrichment media for juvenile short-snouted seahorse, Hippocampus hippocampus”

Aim: The main purpose of the Dissertation is to establish a reliable rearing protocol for the production of Short-snouted seahorse juveniles (H. hippocampus) in captivity, i) ensuring the future production of individuals for reinforcement or repopulation plans of wild stocks in future stock-enhancement initiatives, and ii) introducing the species in the aquarium trade, enabling seahorse aquaculture to be used as an economically viable alternative to wild harvesting.

The work plan aims to clarify the nutritional requirements of short-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus hippocampus) juveniles and a way to provide the required nutrients through live prey enrichment, essential to their diet.

The specific objectives of the study are related with the improvement of growth and survival during early development stages by establishing the most appropiate live feed enrichment using brine shrimp (Artemia nauplii) and two microalgae (Isochrysis galbana and Nannochloropsis sp.).

Work plan: Two experiments were conducted in order to clarify this. In the first one, the potential for replacing and minimizing the use of a live diet (natural copepods, Acartia tonsa) with another (Artemia salina, enriched with two microalgae (Isochrysis galbana and Nannochloropsis sp.).
In the second, based on the information collected previously, different formulas for enriching Artemia were tested in order to try to improve the growth and survival rates of H. hippocampus juveniles.

Literature review:
I already sorted some papers I think would fit the topic (46). Since there’s not enough research regarding this topic on H. hippocampus I had to use similar studies from other seahorse species. I would like the writer to review all the papers, check for their suitability regarding the dissertation’s objective and also check if there is any newer or more relevant ones that would fit and enrich the review regarding it’s quality and number of sources. Then, making all the connections and write a top-notch state-of-the-art capable of “driving” the reader to the study objective and its importance.
I had thought of a possible framework by topics: Brief intro, Characterization of the species, Conservation status (some reference regarding being a flagship species, if you think that’s relevant), Seahorse aquaculture, Captive rearing of seahorse juveniles, Diet and dietary requirements, and Live feed enrichment.
Please feel free to make the changes you think that would work better to this initial framework, you are the expert, I’m just trying to help you as much as I can since we won’t be able to communicate during the process.

Thank you, good work!