Abstract

RODRIGUEZ-SERNA, Miguel  and  CARMONA-OSALDE, Claudia. Growth and survival of larvals of octopus (Octopus maya ): fed with inert diets under conditions of laboratory in Yucatan, Mexico. Hidrobiológica [online]. 2008, vol.18, n.3, pp.209-214. ISSN 0188-8897.

Three experimental diets were probed for the growth and survival rates of young Octopus maya (Voss and Solis 1966), using two inert foods (A2 = shrimp pellets, A3 = Surimi) and one alive food (A1 = Artemia), under controlled conditions. The results showed significant differences between the live food and the inert ones. Young octopus feed with artemia, reported better growth in weight gained compared with the inert diets (A1 = 11.88 g, A2 = 8.9 g, A3 = 8.83 g). All three diets obtained low survivorships, being the alive food the best one with a rate of 61.3%, followed by surimi with 42.3%, and finally the pellet food with 27.6%. Statistical analysis showed differences (p > 0.05) between all the treatments for both growth and survival results. Artificial feeding of O. maya in captivity still requires many efforts to develop a food suitable for this organism, nutritional formulation, attractants, size, among others should be developed.

Keywords : Octopus; inert foods; growth; survivor.