Growth, physiological, and molecular responses of golden pompano Trachinotus ovatus (Linnaeus, 1758) reared at different salinities

Golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus) is a commercially important marine fish and is widely cultured in the coastal area of South China. Salinity is one of the most important environmental factors influencing the growth and survival of fish. The aims of this study are to investigate the growth, physiological, and molecular responses of juvenile golden pompano reared at different salinities. Juveniles reared at 15 and 25 parts per thousand salinity grew significantly faster than those reared at the other salinities. According to the final body weights, weight gain rate, and feed conversion ratio, the suitable culture salinity range was 15-25 parts per thousand salinity. The levels of branchial NKA activity showed a typical U-shaped pattern with the lowest level at 15 parts per thousand salinity, which suggested a lower energy expenditure on osmoregulation at this level of salinity. The results of this study showed that the alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and cortisol of juveniles at 5 parts per thousand were higher than those of other salinity groups. Our results showed that glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase significantly increased at 5 parts per thousand and 35 parts per thousand salinity. Our study showed that osmolality had significant differences in each salinity group. GH, GHR1, and GHR2 had a wide range of tissue expression including the liver, intestine, kidneys, muscle, gills and brain. The expression levels of GH, GHR1 and GHR2 in the intestine, kidneys, and muscle at 15 parts per thousand salinity were significantly higher than those in other three salinity groups. Based on the growth parameters and physiological and molecular responses, the results of the present study indicated that the optimal salinity for rearing golden pompano was 21.36 parts per thousand salinity.