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Effects of temperature on feed intake, growth and oxygen consumption in adult male king crab P aralithodes camtschaticus held in captivity and fed manufactured diets
Author(s) -
Siikavuopio Sten Ivar,
James Philip
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
aquaculture research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-2109
pISSN - 1355-557X
DOI - 10.1111/are.12207
Subject(s) - biology , zoology , captivity , fishery
The current study investigates whether it is possible to increase the meat content of captive male king crab ( P aralithodes camtschaticus ) (average = 2.2 kg) by feeding manufactured diets at different temperatures (4°C, 8°C and 12°C). A 110 days trial was undertaken with groups of male king crabs held in 12 land‐based holding tanks. All crabs survival in the lowest temperature treatment, one animal died in the medium‐temperature group (8°C) and four animals in the highest temperature treatment (12°C). The results showed that feed intake increased with increasing temperature from an average of 1.0 g kg −1 day −1 at 4°C to 2.8 g kg −1 day −1 crab at 12°C. The percentage meat content was significantly higher at the final census (60.0%) compared with the initial census (37.5%) in all temperature groups, but there were no significant differences in the percentage meat content of the king crabs held in the different temperature treatments at the conclusion of the experiment. Oxygen consumption was also significantly affected by temperature and increased with increasing temperature. The results of the experiment show that the optimal temperature to maintain, and enhance, the meat content of king crab is close to 4°C.