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Effects of salinity on survival, feeding behavior and growth of the juvenile swimming crab, Portunus trituberculatus (Miers, 1876)

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Abstract

Effect of salinity on survival, feeding behavior and growth of juvenile swimming crab Portunus trituberculatus was investigated under 5 salinity levels of 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40. The results show that the crab juveniles fed 2 or 3 times at the salinity 20 and 30, each lasted for about 25 minutes, for a total feeding time of 73.2±22.65 minutes per day. At these salinities, there were significantly higher in the frequency of feeding and in total feeding time than those at lower salinities of 5 and 10. All crab juveniles moulted when reared at a salinity of 20 during the 5 days duration of the experiment, which is significantly higher than those at other salinities. All juveniles survived at salinity 20, and the survivorship was not significantly different from that at 30, but was significantly higher than those at other salinities. The crab juveniles reared at a salinity of 20 had the highest value of food ration of 0.190 8±0.011 3 g/gBW, average body weight gain of 0.796±0.128 g, gain rate of 87%–96%, and food conversion ratio of 1.20±0.09. There was no significant difference in the values found between 20 and 30 but these values were significantly lower than that at the other salinities (P >0.05). Highest activities of digestive enzymes (Amylase, Protease, Lipase) and lowest activities of protective enzymes (SOD, PO, CAT) were also obtained on crab juveniles reared at salinity of 20.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine Sciences / Key Lab of Applied Marine Biotechnology of MOE, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China

    Jikang Shentu  (申屠基康), Yongjian Xu  (徐永健) & Zhangni Ding  (丁张妮)

  2. Ningbo Academy of Ocean and Fishery, Ningbo, 315010, China

    Jikang Shentu  (申屠基康)

Authors
  1. Jikang Shentu  (申屠基康)
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  2. Yongjian Xu  (徐永健)
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  3. Zhangni Ding  (丁张妮)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yongjian Xu  (徐永健).

Additional information

Supported by the Science and Technology Innovation Team of Marine Crab Industry in Ningbo City (No. 2011B81003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41276123), the National Spark Plan Program of China (No. 2012GA701048), the Key Project of Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (No. 212070), and the K C Wong Magana Fund in Ningbo University

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Shentu, J., Xu, Y. & Ding, Z. Effects of salinity on survival, feeding behavior and growth of the juvenile swimming crab, Portunus trituberculatus (Miers, 1876). Chin. J. Ocean. Limnol. 33, 679–684 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-015-4218-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-015-4218-3

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