A purified diet for medaka (Oryzias latipes): refining a fish model for toxicological research.

The overall nutritional adequacy of a purified casein-based diet (PC-diet) for the medaka (Oryzias latipes) was evaluated and compared with three diets: commercially available flaked fish food (FL-diet), live newly hatched Artemia (A-diet), and a combination of FL-diet plus A-diet (F/A-diet). Survival, growth, reproductive success, general and liver histopathology, and selected hepatic enzyme activities were compared in medaka from first feeding through reproductive maturity. The PC-diet proved adequate in all of the above criteria. When compared with fish fed F/A-diet, an initial lag in early growth rates (i.e., 0 to 30 days) occurred with the fish fed PC-diet. The FL-diet alone was not nutritionally adequate for medaka, resulting in poor growth, reduced reproductive success, lower survival, and emaciation. A significant number of spinal deformities (5.4%) were noted in medaka fed the F/A diet. Ethoxycoumarin 0-deethylase and glutathione S-transferase activities were monitored and a trend toward increasing activity with age was noted. This suggests that PC- and F/A-diets provide adequate nutrition for development of the xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes necessary for detoxification and activation of endogenous and foreign compounds. The PC-diet supported good survival, growth, reproduction, and normal histology. This diet provides a standardized, nutritionally adequate, and consistent alternative to undefined conventional diets and is less likely to contain the range of xenobiotics possible in whole, live food.

Duke Scholars

Author David E. Hinton Environmental Sciences and Policy