Multiple spawning of the red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Decapoda: Cambaridae) under laboratory conditions

Effect of pairing periods on mating and spawning success of the red swamp crayfish <i>Procambarus clarkii</i> (Decapoda: Cambaridae) under laboratory conditions

“…However, we did not assess spermatophore transfer to the annulus ventralis during copulation in this study, and to further understand the mating strategy of P. clarkii, quantitative assessment of spermatophore deposition per copulation as well as amount of sperm used per egg laying is required. Hamasaki et al (2022b) examine multiple spawning in single females of P. clarkii under the constant high temperature (25°C) and long photoperiod (14L : 10D) conditions that are suitable for their reproduction. In their experiments, females were paired with single males for one day.…”

“…3B). In the mating experiments by Hamasaki et al (2022b), low male reproductive ability may be responsible for the undeveloped egg production in P. clarkii, and so future studies are required to evaluate the effect of male fertility on successful spawning and fertilisation in this species.…”

“…Procambarus clarkii culture was conducted in a room controlled at 25±1°C and 14L : 10D conditions to stimulate ovarian development and spawning (Daniels et al, 1994;Liu et al, 2013;Jin et al, 2019a;Hamasaki et al, 2022b). The test crayfish were individually cultured in plastic containers with lids (17 cm length, 12 cm width and 12 cm height) set in 72-L rectangular stock tanks (55.8 cm length, 36.8 cm width and 32.6 cm height) by sex.…”

“…Three different pairing periods of one, five and 10 days were set to allow mating. Procambarus clarkii females develop glair glands on the underside of the pleon, particularly on the uropods, as the time for egg laying approaches (Huner & Barr, 1991;Hamasaki et al, 2022b). We therefore monitored the uropods every seven days, and females with developed glair glands were remeasured for POCL.…”

“…To develop effective SMRT and aquaculture systems in P. clarkii, reproductive aspects such as mating behaviour, spawning, fecundity and fertility have been evaluated by pairing males and females under laboratory conditions for 1-5 days (Aquiloni et al, 2009;Johović et al, 2020;Hamasaki et al, 2022aHamasaki et al, , 2022b. Consequently, Johović et al (2020) state that a pairing period of five days is sufficient for mating in P. clarkii while Hamasaki et al (2022b) report that all eggs were undeveloped in some females paired with single males for one day.…”