Development of larval culture methods for blue-legged gold coral banded shrimp Stenopus cyanoscelis : effects of prey type and prey density

The blue-legged gold coral banded shrimp, Stenopus cyanoscelis, is among the most popular marine ornamental shrimp; however, no information on its larval culture is available. A 40-day experiment was performed to evaluate effects of prey type and prey density on survival and development of early S. cyanoscelis larvae. Newly hatched larvae were fed rotifers at densities of 5, 25 or 50/ml or Artemia nauplii at densities of 2, 5 or 10/ml. In all treatments, larval survival up to 6 days after hatch (DAH) was high (≥80 %). However, larvae fed rotifers at 5/ml suffered a steep drop in survival after 6 DAH, and total mortality occurred by 14 DAH, when survival in all other treatments ranged from 30 to 50 %. Between 15 and 30 DAH, S. cyanoscelis larvae fed 25 or 50 rotifers/ml showed consistently higher survival than Artemia-fed larvae. However, this situation reversed after 25 DAH, when survival of rotifer-fed larvae decreased sharply while the initial high mortalities of Artemia-fed S. cyanoscelis larvae stabilized around 17 DAH and those fed 5 Artemia/ml showed the highest survival. Meanwhile, linear regression of larval molting rates and DAH showed a negative relationship for rotifer-fed larvae and a positive relationship for Artemia-fed larvae with time. In summary, our findings suggest that an appropriate feeding regime for S. cyanoscelis larvae is provision of rotifers at 50/ml for the first 20−25 DAH, then introducing Artemia nauplii at 5/ml from 17 DAH. This study is a first important step towards developing appropriate larval culture techniques for S. cyanoscelis