Density and Shelter Influence the Adaptation of Wild Juvenile Cauque Prawns Macrobrachium americanum to Culture Conditions

Abstract

Consumer demand for aquatic animals has led to increased interest in using new species for aquaculture purposes. This study appraises the potential for aquaculture of the cauque prawn Macrobrachium americanum using wild juveniles from the west coast of Mexico. Four treatments were applied; treatments A and B consisted of 196 prawns/m2 and treatments C and D of 98 prawns/m2, with and without shelter, respectively. Growth and survival under these conditions were examined for 84 d. The combination of 98 prawns/m2 and shelter resulted in the best survival and growth, whereas the poorest performance was in the treatment with 196 prawns/m2 and no shelter.

Experimental culture of the river prawn Macrobrachium americanum larvae (Bate, 1868), with emphasis on feeding and stocking density effect on survival

“…We assume that larvae in our experiment did not have sufficient energy to successfully molt to the next stage due to a lack of nutrition. Although the results of our experiments does not offer conclusions about proper nutrition, previous studies showed that feeding is one of the main keys to larval survival (García-Guerrero & Apún-Molina, 2008;García-Guerrero, 2010), which in fact is defined as the principal index to determine success or failure of larval cultivation (Daniels et al, 1992).…”

“…Only specimens with all legs, including berried females, were collected. They were transported and cultivated as described by García-Guerrero & Apún-Molina (2008). Berried females were placed in individual 50 L plastic tray tanks and eggs were monitored.…”

Spermatophore production and sperm quality of the river prawn Macrobrachium americanum Spence Bate, 1868 fed with different diets

“…River prawn is locally marketed in Guatemala, El Salvador (Díaz‐Monge, Díaz‐Montt, & Rodríguez‐Ruíz, ) and in several regions of the Pacific coast of Mexico. In Mexico, local fishermen sell their prawns to hotels and restaurants to be offered to guests and diners (García‐Guerrero & Apún‐Molina, ; García‐Guerrero et al, ; Pérez‐Velázquez, Hernández‐Ventura, Ulloa‐Ramírez, Patiño‐Valencia, & Tovar‐Ávila, ). However, no records exist of yearly harvest amounts or of the economic value generated by this activity in Latin America due to the lack of a formal market.…”

“…Recent investigations have focused mostly on production and nutrition of M . americanum juveniles (García‐Guerrero & Apún‐Molina, ; Méndez‐Martínez et al, , ; Pérez‐Rodríguez et al, ; Soberanes‐Yepiz et al, ; Yamasaki‐Granados et al, ). One of the main problems for the successful implementation of aquaculture of this river prawn is the typically low larval survival rate under culture conditions (Yamasaki‐Granados et al, ).…”

Effect of dietary chitin on digestive enzyme activity, growth and survival of Macrobrachium tenellum juvenile prawns

“…The most common cause of death during cultivating prawns is from cannibalism. Common causes for this behavior are lack of shelters or large variations in size among individuals in the same tank (Nair et al, 1999;García-Guerrero & Apun-Molina, 2008) observe that adding chitin to the diet reduced cannibalism in M. rosenbergii. It is important to state that the only chitin source was form diet, since every time one specimen moult, the exuviae was inmediatly removed from the tank.…”