LIPID CLASS COMPOSITION AS A MEASURE OF NUTRITIONAL CONDITION IN INDIVIDUAL LARVAL ATLANTIC COD (GADUS-MORHUA)

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) larvae were reared under various feeding e nvironments to assess their lipid class composition and survival durin g development. Lipids were assessed in individual larvae. Triacylglyce rol (TAG), phospholipids (PL), and defatted dry weight (DDW) all fell during yolk absorption. TAG increased after initiation of exogenous fe eding in different feeding treatments but did not increase in starved larvae. The percentage of individuals greater than 8 d old with high T AG or PL increased with increasing prey concentration. Survivorship wa s low in all feeding trials, but groups with a larger percentage of in dividuals in poor condition tended to exhibit a higher risk of death. We suggest a condition index based on a discriminant function using TA G, FL, and DDW. We assessed the condition of field-collected larvae ba sed on this index.