Effects of bioflocs on immune responses of Fleshy shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis postlarvae and adults as related to the different feeding abilities

The present study compared the structure of mixilliped of Fenneropenaeus chinensis between the larval and adult stage and investigated the effect of the structural difference on the immunity of F. chinensis . A fourteen day and a one-month long culture trial were conducted each with postlarvae and adults of F. chinensis in the biofloc, mixed water (50% biofloc:50% clear seawater) and seawater control. Immune-related genes mRNA expressions of postlarvae was analysed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). And the analysis of adult stage immunity was carried out using phenoloxidase (PO) enzyme activation in haemocyte. In the postlarvae, the final body weights were 51.43 and 58.47 mg for the biofloc water and the control seawater, respectively. On the other hand, the final body weights of the adults were significantly different between biofloc water and seawater. The survival rate showed the opposite trend to the growth rate. Immune related genes mRNA expression levels in the postlarvae in the biofloc water were significantly lower than those in the seawater. While, the adult stage showed significantly higher PO enzyme activations in the biofloc water than in the seawater with the PO enzyme activation increasing proportionally to the biofloc concentration. This result is considerably explained by the observations of setal morphological structures of the third maxilliped: postlarvae have short serrulated setae that compose the small ‘net’ structure while adults had long and dense plumose setae. It is understood that the morphological difference of the maxilliped structure resulted in the different feeding abilities in the postlarvae and the adult F. chinensis to use bioflocs as food source.