Abstract:During starvation, changes of the contents of free amino acids (FAA) in the muscle of Litopenaeus vannamei at salinities of 0 and 30 were examined. The results showed that the concentrations of total FAA increased significantly at both salinities after 15d starvation. Among the free amino acids, the concentrations of taurine, threonine, proline, alanine, cysteine, valine, methionine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, lysine, histidine, and alanine decreased at different extent, and the concentration of proline declined to zero. The concentrations of taurine, threonine, alanine, cysteine, phenylalanine, and lysine also decreased significantly (P<0.05). However, the main free amino acids such as glycine, aspartic acid, tyrosine, and arginine increased greatly after 15d starvation, and as a result, the total concentration of FAA increased. The experiments also showed that the intensity of energy metabolism of FAA in the muscle of L. vannamei is different during starvation. Thus adding proline, arginine and lysine to the artificial food may promote the growth of L. vannamei
