Composition in essential and non-essential elements of early stages of cephalopods and dietary effects on the elemental profiles of Octopus vulgaris paralarvae

During the present study, we aimed at providing a first look at the elemental composition of the early stages of cephalopods as an approach to their elemental requirements in culture. Essential and non-essential elemental profiles of the European cuttlefish Sepia officinalis, the European squid Loligo vulgaris and the common octopus Octopus vulgaris laboratory hatchlings and wild juveniles were analysed. In addition, for O. vulgaris we determined elemental profiles of mature ovary, eggs in different stages of development and followed possible effects of four dietary treatments during paralarval rearing, also analyzing elemental content of the live preys Artemia nauplii and Maja brachydactyla hatchling zoeae. Content was determined for essential (As, Ca, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Rb, S, Sr, Zn) and non-essential (Ag, Al, Ba, Cd, Hg, Pb) elements. The content in non-essential elements found in hatchlings and juveniles of the three species analyzed here seems to be far lower in comparison with subadult and adult stages of coastal cephalopods. In the octopus eggs, the non-essential element concentrations remained globally low compared to hatchlings and juveniles indicating the absorption of these elements along the ontogenetic development. The elemental composition of the octopus ovary and of the eggs, hatchlings and juveniles of the three cephalopod species analyzed here showed a high content in S. As expected, the calcified internal shell of the cuttlefish, rich in Ca and Sr, originates the main difference between species. It is remarkable the richness in Cu of hatchling octopus, that may indicate a particular nutritional requirement for this element during the planktonic life. The reared octopus paralarvae feed on Artemia nauplii, a prey with relatively low Cu content, showed nearly half Cu content that the “natural” profile of octopus hatchlings or wild juveniles. This suggests a dietary effect and/or an indication of the poor physiological stage of the Artemia-fed paralarvae. At the present, the percentage of essential element absorption by food or seawater is unknown for cephalopods and should be determined in the future to understand their feeding requirements in culture.