Nyqvist, Daniel
- Göteborgs Universitet
Predicting growth is critical in aquaculture, but models of growth are largely missing for mud crab species. Here, we present the first model of natural growth in juvenile and adult mud crabs Scylla serrata from East Africa using a stepwise growth function based on data on intermoult periods and growth at moult from field mark-recapture, pond and laboratory studies. The results showed a sigmoid growth pattern in carapace width and suggest that S.serrata in East Africa will reach 300g and sexual maturity similar to 9.9months after settlement, and a commercial size of 500g after 12.4months. Analyses of the literature identified several issues with the common praxis to compare standard growth measures between aquaculture studies with different initial size or growing periods. Using the new growth function to estimate the proportional difference between modelled and obtained growth as an alternative method, we show that growth rates of S.serrata cultured in cage systems, which are dominant in East Africa, was
mud crab; moult increment; intermoult period; segmented growth; aquaculture
Aquaculture Research
2015, volym: 46, nummer: 12, sidor: 2938-2953
Utgivare: WILEY
Fisk- och akvakulturforskning
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/139670