Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Can Larvae Produced From Stored Sperm in the Ornamental Crab Mithraculus forceps (A. Milne Edwards, 1875) (Decapoda: Brachyura: Majidae) Be Used in Aquaculture?

ORCID

0000-0001-6597-0268

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Aquaculture

ISSN

0044-8486

Publication Date

6-30-2006

Keywords

Mithraculus forceps, Larval rearing, Second clutch, Survivorship, Development, Sperm storage

Abstract

The clinging crab, Mithraculus forceps (A. Milne Edwards, 1875), has been demonstrated to be a good candidate for aquaculture. The present study tests the possibility of using the 2nd clutch produced from wild captured ovigerous females for larval rearing. Although larvae of the 2nd clutch took slightly more time to metamorphose to crab, survivorship to newly settled juveniles (13 days post hatching — DPH) was not significantly different between the 1st clutch (85.7 ± 11.2%) and 2nd clutch (68.3 ± 8.4%). No differences were found in crab carapace length (1.32 ± 0.04 and 1.31 ± 0.03 mm for 1st and 2nd clutches, respectively) between the spawns, although the crabs from the 1st clutch were significantly wider than the ones from the 2nd clutch (1.14 ± 0.04 and 1.06 ± 0.03 mm, respectively). The high survivorship and fast larval development obtained in the 2nd clutch suggest that wild captured ovigerous M. forceps females can store sperm and should be maintained in captivity for multiple spawns.

DOI

10.1016/j.aquaculture.2006.02.065

Volume

257

Issue

1-4

First Page

282

Last Page

286

Comments

©2006 Elsevier B.V.

This document is currently not available here.

Peer Reviewed

Find in your library

Share

COinS