INFLUENCE OF LARVAL DENSITY AT THE INITIAL SEEDING AND THE CONCENTRATION OF FOOD ON ARGOPECTEN NUCLEUS LARVICULTURE (OSTREOIDA: PECTINIIDAE)

Abstract

Argopecten nucleus is a scallop bivalve native from the Colombian Caribbean, with great potential culture, but the critic point for a large-scale production is the scarce seed spat available in the environment. For this reason, its production in the laboratory is the most promising source. There is no consensus about feeding with respect to the larval sowing density after several studies, since generally each factor is worked separately. Therefore, in this research we studied the joint effect of the larval initial density and the feed ration, testing three different densities, 5, 10, and 15 larvae mL-1 and three feed concentrations, 20000, 40000, and 70000 cells mL-1 of Isochrysis galbana, over the surviving, growth, condition state (full, halffull, and empty larvae), deformity or malformation, and development of the eye spot. There was not interaction between factors with regard to surviving, growth, and deformity, but over condition state. There were not significant differences with regard to survival with any of combinations tested, whereas larval density make a greatly influence in the growth and condition state, being higher in the 10 and 15 larvae mL-1 culture for the first variable and in the 10 larvae mL-1 culture for the second one. There was no significant influence by feed concentration in any case. Even so, the percentages obtained with the combination of 10 larvae mL-1 and 20000 cells mL-1 of food (L10-20C) was higher in most cases. There were not eye spot larvae in this experiment.