Isolation and cultivation of the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex (Linnaeus, 1758), with an evaluation of its chemical and nutritional content

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In recent years, global aquaculture has increased significantly, and therefore the demand for animal protein used to feed farmed fish has increased, this has led to the search for other sources of animal protein instead of fish meal. Amphipods as Gammarus are among those possible alternatives due to its abundant productivity and appropriate nutritional content, as the current study showed that its protein content was 40%, carbohydrates 27.4%, fat 5.5%, and it also contained antioxidants such as tannic acid (223.146 mg/100g) and β-carotene (21602.964 IU/100g) in addition to many essential vitamins in considerable values such as Vitamin B2 338.3842 mg/100g, Vitamin B6 (635.616 mg/100g), Vitamin B12 (419.5017 mg/100g), Vitamin A (19623.98 IU/100g), Vitamin E (177.958 mg/100g), Vitamin D (59.672 mg/100g), and Folic Acid (521.185 µg/100g).
Gammarus pulex has been isolated from the natural resource (Lake Mariout), and after 90 days of rearing in tanks (initial stock: 30 individuals/liter) supplied with four different types of nests: pored wood pieces, balls of palm fibers, balls of palm leaves, and balls of nylon net "Haba net", one type for each tank. The obtained data revealed that balls of palm leaves are the best nest for rearing as it gave the highest yields (127 individuals/liter), the average obtained numbers of the different rearing tanks was 108 individuals/liter with average wet weight 2.16g/l, which means 1m3 water can produce approximately 2160g of Gammarus.
A new nutritional formula was used in the current study to feed the cultivated Gammarus in its various stages, which gave good results that were reflected in its productivity and the analysis of its chemical components.

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