69
4 Historical Review of Cephalopods Culture
juveniles with success. This led to a series of experiments on palatability and
growth trials on pelleted diets for O� bimaculoides and S� officinalis juveniles. The
following diets were tested by Lee et al. (1991): live and frozen shrimp, live fish
and fish fillets, surimi, raw chicken meat, pureed shrimp and chicken, turkey hot
dogs and pellets of penaeid shrimp, mysid shrimp and chicken. None of the species
ingested surimi and both preferred live food. However, octopuses were faster in accepting the non-natural diets. Despite the acceptance and ingestion of the remaining
diets, this trial was characterized by cannibalism after 30–40 days in group-reared
animals, which suggested nutritional deficiencies or imbalances of the non-natural
diets. The attractiveness of several chemical and crude extracts were tested in O�
maya (Lee 1992), which demonstrated chemotaxis to proline, ATP and crab extract.
In a subsequent study, Castro et al. (1993) tested the effects of fish surimi and pelleted diets on the species growth, survival and feeding rates during 45 days. Despite
acceptance and ingestion of surimi in the first 30 days, survival and growth was
poor with either diet (67.5 % and 22.5 %; 0.33 % and 0.54 BW day
−1
, respectively).
Due to the results of acceptance of this study, Castro and Lee (1994) tested different
surimi formulations (fish myofibrillar protein concentrate) for S� officinalis, varying its content with the use or not of egg albumin, casein, whole egg, menhaden oil,
cholesterol and lecithin. Once again, growth was feeble with any diet, despite being
accepted and ingested.
As a result of those studies, one of the main bottlenecks in cephalopod culture
was identified to be nutrition and physiology. The efforts performed on solving this
lack of specific knowledge are revised in the following Chap. 5—Nutrition as a key
factor for cephalopod aquaculture.
Cephalopods being senescent by nature and some species hard to keep and breed
in captivity, led Japanese researchers to develop the in vitro fertilization of squid,
as a way to obtain hatchlings of oceanic squid (Arnold and O’Dor 1990). This technique was used mainly with ommastrephid squid species with commercial interest as Todarodes pacificus (Ikeda et al 1993; Ikeda and Shimazaki 1995; Sakurai
et al. 1996; Watanabe et al. 1996), I� argentinus (Sakai and Brunetti 1997; Sakai
et al. 1998), Ommastrephes bartramii and Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis (Sakurai et al.
1995). This technique has been updated and the literature reviewed recently by Villanueva et al. (2012).
4.6 Conclusions
The introduction of a new species in aquaculture requires a series of preliminary
studies related to the biology, ecology and physiology of the species. Despite
the increased number of researchers directly or indirectly dedicated to this task, and
the increased output of information over the past 20–30 years, the main constraints
in developing feasible cephalopod culture technology are considerable. This has
primarily to do with the fact that cephalopods are very specialized in their physiology and are the most intelligent marine invertebrates. Up till now, the available
4 Historical Review of Cephalopods Culture
juveniles with success. This led to a series of experiments on palatability and
growth trials on pelleted diets for O� bimaculoides and S� officinalis juveniles. The
following diets were tested by Lee et al. (1991): live and frozen shrimp, live fish
and fish fillets, surimi, raw chicken meat, pureed shrimp and chicken, turkey hot
dogs and pellets of penaeid shrimp, mysid shrimp and chicken. None of the species
ingested surimi and both preferred live food. However, octopuses were faster in accepting the non-natural diets. Despite the acceptance and ingestion of the remaining
diets, this trial was characterized by cannibalism after 30–40 days in group-reared
animals, which suggested nutritional deficiencies or imbalances of the non-natural
diets. The attractiveness of several chemical and crude extracts were tested in O�
maya (Lee 1992), which demonstrated chemotaxis to proline, ATP and crab extract.
In a subsequent study, Castro et al. (1993) tested the effects of fish surimi and pelleted diets on the species growth, survival and feeding rates during 45 days. Despite
acceptance and ingestion of surimi in the first 30 days, survival and growth was
poor with either diet (67.5 % and 22.5 %; 0.33 % and 0.54 BW day
−1
, respectively).
Due to the results of acceptance of this study, Castro and Lee (1994) tested different
surimi formulations (fish myofibrillar protein concentrate) for S� officinalis, varying its content with the use or not of egg albumin, casein, whole egg, menhaden oil,
cholesterol and lecithin. Once again, growth was feeble with any diet, despite being
accepted and ingested.
As a result of those studies, one of the main bottlenecks in cephalopod culture
was identified to be nutrition and physiology. The efforts performed on solving this
lack of specific knowledge are revised in the following Chap. 5—Nutrition as a key
factor for cephalopod aquaculture.
Cephalopods being senescent by nature and some species hard to keep and breed
in captivity, led Japanese researchers to develop the in vitro fertilization of squid,
as a way to obtain hatchlings of oceanic squid (Arnold and O’Dor 1990). This technique was used mainly with ommastrephid squid species with commercial interest as Todarodes pacificus (Ikeda et al 1993; Ikeda and Shimazaki 1995; Sakurai
et al. 1996; Watanabe et al. 1996), I� argentinus (Sakai and Brunetti 1997; Sakai
et al. 1998), Ommastrephes bartramii and Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis (Sakurai et al.
1995). This technique has been updated and the literature reviewed recently by Villanueva et al. (2012).
4.6 Conclusions
The introduction of a new species in aquaculture requires a series of preliminary
studies related to the biology, ecology and physiology of the species. Despite
the increased number of researchers directly or indirectly dedicated to this task, and
the increased output of information over the past 20–30 years, the main constraints
in developing feasible cephalopod culture technology are considerable. This has
primarily to do with the fact that cephalopods are very specialized in their physiology and are the most intelligent marine invertebrates. Up till now, the available