Behavioural responses of farmed South African abalone Haliotis midae L. to disturbances caused by husbandry procedures

Abstract

The South African abalone, Haliotis midae L., is an important mariculture species. In the natural environment, abalone move and migrate to new sites to escape from disturbances. This is the first study that tested the effect of disturbances on movement and feeding activity of farmed abalone for 6 days post-disturbance. Disturbances were (a) turning over the feeder plate, (b) moving and shaking the feeder plate and (c) briefly lifting the basket containing the abalone out of the water. Abalone in the control treatment were not subjected to disturbance. Activity levels of abalone were elevated in the first 1-2 nights post-disturbance with 2-3 times more abalone appearing on the walls of the baskets and larger numbers on the feeder plate than in the control treatment. Feed uptake was not influenced by treatment. Thus, even minor disturbances resulted in increased activity. As it takes at least 1 year to conduct growth experiments in this slow-growing mollusc, the results provide a motivation for studies of growth and metabolic rate in this species under a range of husbandry conditions, such as regular handling, sorting and moving of abalone.

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“…midae reaches 5–8 mm, abalones are transferred to a 2.0 m × 0.5 m × 0.25 m tank. About 50% of the bottom area of the tank is covered with 100 mm PVC pipes and ceramic pipes are used as shelter 48,59 . At the grow‐out phase, the dimensions of Chilean indoor culture units are 1.5 m × 1.5 m × 0.7 m, gross volume: 11,000 L, and the bottom part is conical for ease of cleaning.…”

No evident effect of domestication on the anti-predator behaviour of European abalone (Haliotis tuberculata): Implications for stock enhancement programs

“…When the mucus is ejected, it drifts through the water and carries the smell of abalone and the starfish may therefore be unable to detect the abalone position (Day et al, 1995). A relatively high proportion of individuals ejected mucus, suggesting that the juveniles from both broodstock origins were able to detect the physical and/or chemical signals of the starfish (Bancalà, 2009;Kaiser et al, 2017).…”

Modelling regional and local-scale larval seeding strategies for abalone (H. midae) ranching in South Africa

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