Abstrakt: |
The effects of mono- and bi-microalgal diets on shell length, organic tissue, and survival of Spondylus limbatus juveniles were tested in two separate feeding experiments. The first examined nine single species of microalgae: Chaetoceros gracilis, C. muelleri, Isochrysis aff. galbana (T-ISO), Tetraselmis chuii, T. maculata, Pavlova lutheri, Dunaliella salina, Rhodomonas sp., and Nannochloropsis sp. An extra treatment maintaining the juveniles in a long line culture was at Ayangue Bay, Province of Santa Elena, Ecuador. Single diets of P. lutheri, C. muelleri, and C. gracilis showed the best combined growth of survival performance in juveniles, and were therefore selected for the bi-algal diet experiment design with the inclusion of I. galbana T-ISO due to its recommended use in bivalve culture. A second experiment consisted in selecting the best three microalgae species that resulted from the first experiment and combined each other in binary treatments at 1:1 ratio. All bi-algal diets in combination with P. lutheri showed good result in growth (shell and biomass), yield, and survival. However, single P. lutheri mono-algal diet showed equal or better performance index than the other bi-algal combined diets, demonstrating the pertinence in using this microalga as food for S. limbatus juveniles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |