STUDIES OF DIGESTIVE PHYSIOLOGY DURING EARLY ONTOGENY OF THE MAYAN CICHLID CICHLASOMA UROPHTHALMUS

摘要

Some of the aspects that should be considered for the design of feeding protocols of fish are the study of the digestive system. The knowledge of the morpho-physiological changes during the initial ontogeny is fundamental to establish the basis for the development of larviculture (Lazo et al., 2011). However, although the development among fishes is quite similar, there are many differences related to the timing of morphological and cytological differentiation during early ontogeny, which depends onseveral factors such as type of food and feed composition (Zambonino-Infante and Cahu, 2007). On the other hand, the Mayan cichlid, Cichlasoma urophthalmus, is an important regional species with a high commercial value and its culture has been recently developed. However, studies on the digestive physiology haven't been conducted. For this reason, the objective of this study was to describe the organogenesis and the main digestive enzymes expression during the initial ontogeny.