Respiration Rate of Larvae of the Swimming Crab, Neptunus trituberculatus

摘要

The respiration rate of the larvae of the swimming crab, Neptunus trituberculatus was measured with water bottle method, by using the larvae at various developmental stages, sampled from hatchery tanks at Ōyano Experimental Station of Fisheries, Kumamoto Prefecture, in both years of 1977 and 1978. In 1977, sea water filtered through GF/D was adjusted at 24℃ for the experiment, on the other hand, in 1978 the experiment was performed at about 30℃ without any adjustment of water temperature. From both experiments in two years, linear regressions were obtained between logarithms of respiration rate and of body weight, and these equations are represented as follows. log Y₁=0.150+0.771 log Xw (Fig.1) log Y₁=0.635+0.815 log XD (Fig.2) log Yw=0.152-0.229 log Xw (Fig.3) log Yw=0.639-0.188 log XD (Fig.4) Where Y₁ and Yw represent total respiration rate (μℓ O₂/larva/hr) and weight specific respiration rate (μℓ O₂/mg/hr), respectively, and Xw and Xd represent body wet and dry weights (mg), respectively. The relationship between body wet and dry weights is represented as a following equation (Fig.5). log XD=-0.592+0.955 log Xw The refrection of the difference in the water temperature was hardly detected on the respiration rates obtained in both years, probably owing to relatively short term of temperature acclimatization of larvae in 1977. The results obtained in two years, therefore, may be considered to represent the respiration rates at natural water temperature of about 30℃ in the hatchery tanks.