Complete larval development of the Monkey River Prawn Macrobrachium lar (Palaemonidae) using a novel greenwater technique

Abstract

This study documents the complete larval development of the Monkey River Prawn Macrobrachium lar using a new greenwater rearing technique. Approximately 6,000 larvae were reared for 110 days at an initial stocking density of 1 ind./6 L. Salinity at hatch was 10 ± 2 ppt and progressively increased to 30 ± 2 ppt until decapodids had metamorphosed. Temperature was maintained at 28 ± 0.5°C, pH at 7.8 ± 0.2, DO2 > 6.5 mg/L and NH4+ and NH3 ≤ 1.5 and ≤0.1 ppm respectively throughout the culture period. Larval development was extended and occurred through 13 zoeal stages, with the first decapodid measuring 6.2 ± 0.63 mm in total length observed after 77 days. 5 decapodids in total were produced, and overall survival to this stage was 0.08%. Overall, the pattern of larval growth shares similarities with those of other Macrobrachium spp. that have a prolonged/normal type of development, and it is likely that larvae underwent mark time moulting which contributed to the lengthened development duration. While this study represents a significant breakthrough in efforts to domesticate M. lar, improvement of larval survival rates and decreased time till metamorphosis are required before it can become fully viable for commercial scale aquaculture.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-3-568) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Effect of salinity on the embryonic development ofMacrobrachium acanthurus(Decapoda: Palaemonidae)

“…Macrobrachium acanthurus has a short incubation period, similar to that of M. olfersii (Müller et al 2003), M. lamarrei (H. Milne edwards) (Sharma & Subba 2005), M. americanum Bate, 1868(García-Guerrero & Hendrickx 2009, M. idella idella (Hilgendorf, 1898) (Dinakaran et al 2013), and M. lar (Lal et al 2014). Species such as these with extended larval development tend to exhibit many larval stages and depend on the estuary with moderate salinities or from marine ambient to complete development (Bauer 2004;Lara & Wehrtmann 2009;Lal et al 2012Lal et al , 2014. However, some Macrobrachium species present abbreviated larval development, and females incubate embryos for a longer period, as in M. hainanense (Parisi, 1919), which has an incubation period of up to 53 days (Mantel & Dudgeon 2005).…”

Larval development to the first eighth zoeal stages in the deep-sea caridean shrimp Plesionika grandis Doflein, 1902 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Pandalidae)

“…Compared to the long larval development in other caridean shrimps such as Rhynchocinetes conspiciocellus Okuno & Takeda, 1992 (eleven zoeal stages to decapodid in 112 days, Matoba and Shokita 1998) and Macrobrachium lar (Fabricius, 1798) (eight zoeal stages to decapodid in 110 days, Lal et al 2014), their pleopods only firstly appeared at three stages before the final zoeal stage (i.e. R. conspiciocellus in ZVIII; M. lar in ZV).…”

Design of a Viability Test for Freshwater Prawn Aquaculture of Two Different Macrobrachium Species in Aneityum, Vanuatu

“…Therefore, the only successful examples of M. lar aquaculture require catching wild specimens to use in grow-out ponds. Prior to a 2014 study by Lal et al, there had been no hatchery trial for M. lar in which larvae survived to become PL, and in that study, only 0.08% of the larvae (5 specimens) survived to become PL (Lal et al 2014).…”

“…They both have the same four stages of life: berried females carry eggs, which hatch into planktonic larvae that travel to brackish water and turn omnivorous, before metamorphosizing into PL that travel upstream into freshwater and finally grow into full adults. The biggest difference is while M. rosenbergeii larvae metamorphize after 19 -28 days, M. lar requires 77 -110 days before metamorphosizing, which has generally made them a less favorable choice for aquaculture (Lal et al 2014).…”

“…• M. lar larvae require salinities of 30 -35 ppt (ocean water) instead of the 12 ppt needed for M. rosenbergeii. Therefore, after the larvae hatch, the salinity in the rearing tank will need to be adjusted from ~5 p.p.t to 32 -34 ppt over a 12-hour period (Lal et al 2014). The proposed design for the hatchery for M. lar therefore only needs two intake locations: one providing freshwater with a salinity of 0 ppt, and one providing ocean water.…”