Peña, R., E.P., Ríos-Mendoza & E., Zúñiga-Villarreal (2022). Growth and development of Pacific seahorse Hippocampus ingens in culture conditions. Aquaculture 2022. San Diego, Estados Unidos de América, febrero 28 - marzo 4, 2022, 1.
Renato Peña 1, Erika P. Ríos-Mendoza 2 y Eliezer Zúñiga-Villarreal 3
Seahorses Hippocampus sp. are fishes with unique morphological and ecological characteristics that make them particularly susceptible to overfishing, by catch and anthropogenic disturbances. The seahorse trade worldwide has been increasing in recent years and aquaculture has been proposed as an alternative to address unsustainable trade of seahorses for traditional medicine and ornamental industry. However, the lack of basic information regarding growth patterns and developmental stages hinders the advances in establishing the optimal culture conditions.
The Pacific seahorse Hippocampus ingens is the sole species on Hippocampus found in the Pacific coast, with a range extending from California to southern Peru. It is mostcommonly associated with algae or rocks, and strongly associated with soft coralsand coral reefs. In the present study we report the growth and development ofjuvenile H. ingens kept under culture conditions during the first 30days of development.
Pacific sea horse juveniles were obtained from one spawn of H. ingens brood stock held under culture conditions in the commercial farm INGENS Cultivos Marinos in Mazatlán, Mexico. Juveniles were maintained in 50L plastic tanks. Seawater was treated with mechanical (5µm), biological and UV filtration. Culture conditions in the aquaria were maintained at a temperature of 24-27ºC, salinity of 33-35ups, gentle aeration, a 12:12 photo period and O2 saturation of 100%. Juveniles were fed with Artemia nauplii, prey density fluctuated from 5-10nauplii/ml.
Every day, starting with the newly born juveniles (day 1) and until day 30, three juveniles were sampled, an esthetized with a 4% phenoxyethanol solution, and fixed in a 4% para formaldehyde solution. Juveniles were weighted at the nearest 0.0001g andphotographed with a digital camera. Standard length was calculated in everyphotograph using an image analysis software. Weight gain(WG), specific growth rate (SGR) and condition factor (CF) during the studiedperiod were estimated as follows WG(%)=(Wf-Wi)/Wi×100;SGR(%)=((lnWf-lnWi)/t)×100; CF=(W/L)×100 where, Wf is the final weight (g),W isthe weight (g),Wi is the initial weight (g), SL is the standard length (cm),and t is the duration (d).
Newly born juveniles showed an initial SL of 7.502 ± 0.121 (average ± std dev) mm and an average weight of 0.0010 ± 0.0001g. In the end of the study at day 30, the maximum SL was 32.658 ± 3.58 mm and an average weight of 0.0723 ± 0.0254g. Our results suggest the presence of two developmental stages, the first one during the first 14 days with a low SGR, WG and CF and the second during the last 16 days with a significant increase of these parameters. The specific growth rate during the period studied was 0.15 gr/day.
Palabras clave: Growth; development; Hippocampus ingens; Allometry
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