305/N-C0ST/2008/0). The project

was carried out by a partnership of the Branch of Marine Geology of the Polish Geological Institute – National Research Institute, the Maritime Institute in Gdańsk and the Marine Fisheries Institute – National Research Institute, and in close cooperation with the Maritime Office in Gdynia. Investigations of meio- and macrozoobenthos were performed by the Marine Fisheries Institute – National Research Institute, and their results are to be presented in separate publications. PF-562271 molecular weight The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their valuable remarks and comments. The authors especially appreciate the efforts of reviewer Dr Adam Kubicki from Senckenberg am Meer, Wilhelmshaven, whose comments and suggestions significantly improved the paper. “
“The importance of polychaetes as feed in aquaculture is attributed to their potential to provide polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are essential for egg maturation in cultured prawns (Meunpol

et al. 2005, Nguyen et al. 2012), spawning in hatchery-reared fish species selleck screening library (Dinis et al. 1996) and enhancing reproductive performance in reared prawn stocks (Huang et al. 2008). Pseudonereis anomala Gravier 1901 is an Indo-Pacific nereid polychaete species that migrated through the Suez Canal from the Red Isotretinoin Sea into the Mediterranean and established healthy populations ( Çinar & Altun 2007, Dorgham et al. 2013). It can

act as a food source for many large predators, including crabs and fishes ( Çinar & Altun 2007), as it occurs in a variety of shallow water benthic habitats ( Ergen & Çinar 1997, Çinar & Ergen 2005) and exhibits a wide ecological valence that enables it to extend its distributional range into different parts of the Mediterranean ( Çinar & Altun 2007). Polychaetes are widely used as bait in recreational fishing in Egypt, but they are not applied as feed in aquaculture owing to the lack of information about their nutritional value. Such information is not available because little attention has been paid to the biochemical composition of polychaetes along Egyptian coasts. Only Osman (2007) measured protein and total lipids in the Oenonid polychaete Halla parthenopeia from the Suez Canal. The present study aims to measure the amount of some biochemical components in P. anomala in order to assess its potential as a source of fatty acids and amino acids for animal feeds in aquaculture. The worms were collected seasonally (summer: August, autumn: October, winter: January and spring: April) from hard substrates within a depth range of 20–50 cm on the Alexandria coast from August 2009 to July 2010.