How do you decide on feed formulation for potentially new aquaculture species?

When you don’t know anything about the new animal you’re growing, you need to get to know them better. In terms of establishing their dietary needs, you’d need to study the habits and observe what they eat in nature. You can also dissect some of the species and see what exactly are in their stomach contents to provide you with a clue on what they eat. Back at the lab, you can send bits and pieces for testing to see what amino acid and fatty acid profiles they have and this can help you better refine the diet.

For octopi, it seems like sending their guts for testing will give you a good fatty acid profile of their dietary requirements.

Aquaculture Research
Volume 44, Number 1 (December 2012)
	Efficient utilization of dietary lipids in Octopus vulgaris(Cuvier 1797) fed fresh and agglutinated moist diets based on aquaculture by-products and low price trash species
	Authors:	Juan Estefanell, Javier Roo, Rafael Guirao, Juan Manuel Afonso, Hipólito Fernández-Palacios, Marisol Izquierdo, Juan Socorro
	Author Affiliations:	no affiliations available
	Source:	Aquaculture Research, Volume 44, Number 1 (December 2012)
	Page Numbers:	93 – 105
	Available Full Text:	Full Text: Subscription Required to view full text Format: PDF Size: unknown Location: Publisher’s Site Authentication: EBSCOhost EJS
	Abstract:	The aim of this study was to evaluate growth, biochemical composition and dietary nutrients utilization in Octopus vulgarisfed on four diets based on bogue Boops boops, from different origin and in two presentations: fresh discarded bogue (aquaculture by-product) (DB-f), fresh wild bogue (low price trash species) (WB-f), discarded bogue agglutinated moist diet (DB-m) and wild bogue agglutinated moist diet (WB-m). Diets based on DB showed higher lipid content (19–26% dw) than those based on WB(5–6% dw). Octopuses fed on DB-based diets showed higher growth (1.5–1.9% day-1) and higher protein efficiency ratio (0.64–0.69) than those fed on WB-based diet (1.1–1.5% day-1and 0.36–0.37 respectively), which suggests good utilization of dietary lipids and also a possible protein sparing effect by lipids in O. vulgaris. Octopuses fed on diets presented fresh showed a higher growth (1.9–1.5% day-1) and a higher feed efficiency (62–65%) than those fed on agglutinated diets (1.1–1.5% and 52–60% day-1respectively). Regarding fatty acids, the digestive gland clearly reflected dietary lipid and fatty acid profile, while muscle showed a more stable composition. Low dietary ARA content reflected in octopus tissues, especially in specimens fed on DB-based diets, which did not seem to affect growth during the experimental period.
	Citation:	Juan Estefanell, Javier Roo, Rafael Guirao, Juan Manuel Afonso, Hipólito Fernández-Palacios, Marisol Izquierdo, Juan Socorro . Efficient utilization of dietary lipids in Octopus vulgaris(Cuvier 1797) fed fresh and agglutinated moist diets based on aquaculture by-products and low price trash species. Aquaculture Research, Volume 44, Number 1 (December 2012), pp. 93-105, <http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=41F09E7AF2CCE8D3A292&gt;
	URL:	http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=41F09E7AF2CCE8D3A292