The Growth and Survival of the European Lobster (Homarus gammarus Linnaeus, 1758) Larvae and Juveniles in a Recirculating System

In this study, the growth and survival of H. gammarus larvae and juveniles were investigated in two different consecutive trials. In the first trial, newly hatched lobster larvae were raised in 100 liter cylindro-conical tanks in triplicate. Each tank was stocked with 150 lobster larvae (a total of 450 larvae) and the growth and survival of larvae at the end of stage IV were determined. In the second trial, the growth and survival of juvenile lobsters fed on three different diets were determined for a period of 102 days using an integrated recirculating system with 10% daily water renewal. For this purpose, a total of 3 different diets including a mollusk based (M), a crustacean based (C) and a commercial seabass diet (L) were prepared. A total of 135 juvenile lobsters, 45 for each treatment were used for the juvenile growth trial. At the end of the larval growth experiment, the mean carapace and total length of Stage IV larvae were 5.255±0.052 mm and 13.027±0.486 mm, respectively, with no significant differences within tanks (p>0.05) and the mean survival rate of lobsters was 13.11%. In the juvenile growth trial, the highest carapace length was 1.371±0.023 cm in treatment C, followed by 1.251±0.039 cm and 1.187±0.095 cm in treatment M and L, respectively. At the end of 102 days, the mean survival rates of juvenile lobsters were %98.7, %80 and %53.3 in treatments C, M and L, respectively. The most successful diet for juvenile lobsters, with respect to growth and survival, was the crustacean based diet. The findings of this study provide information to help improve the growth and survival rates of larval and juvenile H. gammarus in captivity.