Suitable Initial Body Sizes of Juvenile Spotted Babylon (Babylonia areolata L.) for Growing Out to Marketable Sizes in a Large-Scale Flow-Through System

摘要

Suitable initial body sizes of juvenile spotted babylon (Babylonia areolata) for growing out to marketable sizes were determined under a large-scale flow-through system. Juveniles were graded by size into six groups of initial body sizes: traditional size (T; 0.29 ± 0.007 g/snail); medium size 1 (M1; 0.16 ± 0.009 g/snail); medium size 2 (M2; 0.13 ± 0.002 g/snail); medium size 3 (M3; 0.12 ± 0.006 g/snail); small size 1 (S1; 0.09 ± 0.007 g/snail); and small size 2 (S2; 0.07 ± 0.005 g/snail). A comparison was performed at the end of the experiment between the growth of small spotted babylon and the other size groups to confirm that the growth performance of small-size groups was better than the others. There were no significant differences in average weight gain between the six size groups (P 0.05). The average weight gain ranged from 4.13-4.27 g/snail, 4.00-4.25 g/snail, and 3.97 g/snail in the small sizes, medium sizes, and large size, respectively. However, the average specific growth rate in body weight of both small sizes (S1: 2.73% day−1;; S2: 2.59% day−1) was also significantly higher than those of the medium sizes (2.19%-2.39% day−1) and the large size (1.79% day−1). ANOVA of SGR by size groups showed significant differences between the six size groups (P 0.05). Intergroup comparisons by Tukey's test revealed that SGR differed significantly except S1 vs. S2. The final survival rate was higher than 96% for all growth trials and ranged from 96.40%-97.50%; no significant difference in survival between the six size groups was found. This study shows that juveniles of small size grew faster than the other size groups.View full textDownload full textKEYWORDS Babylonia areolata , growing out, flow-through system, initial body sizes, growth, survivalRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10454430903539087