Journal
AQUACULTURE
Volume 370, Issue -, Pages 68-75Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2012.10.003
Keywords
Larval morphology; Stage; Eastern rock lobster; Filter-press; Aquaculture
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Mass propagation of spiny lobster phyllosoma is a critical bottleneck for the development of spiny lobster aquaculture. Eastern spiny lobster Sagmariasus verreauxi has been identified as a good candidate for temperate culture with a relatively short life cycle lasting 6 to 8 months and 17 stages. We investigated the development and functionality of the filter-press of S. verreauxi phyllosoma to better understand the size and quantity of dietary particles ingested over the entire larval cycle. Filter-press morphometrics were obtained from live phyllosoma larvae throughout development, and filtration capacity was ascertained using fluorescent microspheres and the rare earth metal markers yttrium oxide and ytterbium oxide. The filter-press of phyllosoma larvae was fully functional from stage 3, fully developed from stage 4, and the numbers (8 to 50), lengths (79 to 384 mu m), and widths (14.8 to 20.3 mu m) of food grooves increased with the development stage to accommodate a larger volume of ingested food. In contrast, there was no change in the widths of the lower ampullary setae (1.28 +/- 0.16 mu m) or the widths of the gap between these setae (0.91 +/- 0.07 mu m). Lower ampullary setae were arranged in a single layer perpendicular to the food grooves and restricted the entry of food particles into the digestive gland. From stage 3, the filter-press selectively excluded more than 99% of particles of >1 mu m from reaching the digestive gland and demonstrated that only particles of <= 1 mu m are available for digestion. In the absence of a gastric mill, phyllosoma larvae have no obvious structure for internally grinding prey and the present study shows that phyllosoma larvae are well adapted to feed from the body fluids of wild preys over their entire larval cycle. The results have important practical applications for the development of formulated feeds for spiny lobster larvae. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available