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New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research

ISSN: 0028-8330 (Print) 1175-8805 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tnzm20

Growth, repetitive breeding, and aquaculturepotential of the spiny lobster, Panulirus ornatus

T. Senthil Murugan , M. C. Remany , T. Mary Leema , JHA Dilip Kumar , J.Santhanakumar , M. Vijayakumaran , R. Venkatesan & M. Ravindran

To cite this article: T. Senthil Murugan , M. C. Remany , T. Mary Leema , JHA DilipKumar , J. Santhanakumar , M. Vijayakumaran , R. Venkatesan & M. Ravindran (2005)Growth, repetitive breeding, and aquaculture potential of the spiny lobster, Panulirusornatus , New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 39:2, 311-315, DOI:10.1080/00288330.2005.9517311

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00288330.2005.9517311

Published online: 29 Mar 2010.

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New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2005, Vol. 39 : 3 1 1 - 3 1 60028-8330/05/3902-0311 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2005

311

Short communication

Growth, repetitive breeding, and aquaculture potentialof the spiny lobster, Panulirus ornatus

T. SENTHIL MURUGANM. C. REMANYT. MARY LEEMAJHA DILIP KUMARJ. SANTHANAKUMARM. VIJAYAKUMARANR. VENKATESANM. RAVINDRAN

National Institute of Ocean TechnologyPallikaranaiChennai 601302, Indiaemail: vijay@niot.res.in

Abstract A pair of subadult Panulirus ornatus wasreared in the laboratory from July 2001. The femalegrew from 0.6 to 1.3 kg and the male from 0.5 to1.6 kg in 2 years before the first mating in July 2003.In 6 months, from July to December 2003, the pairmated and spawned 3 times, producing 1.6 millioneggs and 1.1 million phyllosoma larvae. Matingoccurred 25 and 63 days after moulting. The femalespawned 2-3 days after mating and the incubationtime ranged from 23 to 27 days. The phyllosomalarvae were released over 2 successive days. Thegrowth rate reduced after first mating in both themale and female and the female expended 42% ofthe total weight gain for egg production.

Keywords Panulirus ornatus; growth rate; repeti-tive breeding; egg production

M04011; Online publication date 31 May 2005Received 8 February 2004; accepted 12 November 2004

INTRODUCTION

Among the spiny lobsters exported live from India,Panulirus ornatus (Fabricius, 1798), which is termed"tiger" in the export trade, enjoys the highest value.This species is also the largest tropical lobster,growing to over 6.5 kg. Attainment of 300 g in thefirst year from puerulus stage (<1 g) was reportedfor this species by Tamn (1980). P. ornatus growsfaster in the laboratory than other tropical lobsterssuch as P. homarus, P.polyphagus, and P. versicolor(Radhakrishnan & Vijayakumaran 1990; Vijayaku-maran & Radhakrishnan 1997). Because of its fastergrowth rate and attainment of sexual maturity at c.1 kg size, it is considered as the ideal species foraquaculture. About 15% of P. ornatus exported fromIndia is in the size group of 300-500 g(Vijayakumaran & Radhakrishnan 1997) and asizeable number of juvenile P. ornatus below 300 gsize are caught on the south-east coast of India.These can be fattened for short periods in indoortanks or in open sea cages for value addition. TheNational Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai,India has initiated attempts to rear the phyllosomalarvae of P. ornatus from captive breeders forcontinuous availability of larvae for experiments.

METHODS

Two P. ornatus females weighing 545 and 596 g anda male weighing 510 g were collected in late July2001. The smaller female died after 2 months andthe remaining two were reared along with otherspecies of lobsters such as P. homarus and P.polyphagus at the NIOT laboratory at Chennai. InJanuary 2003, the pair of P. ornatus were transferredto a rectangular cement tank of 5.3 m2 area withoutartificial shelter. The lobsters were fed with greenmussel, Perna viridis and occasionally with themarine clam, Donax cuneatus. Moulting and growthof these lobsters were monitored. Moulting timeswere recorded and the lobsters were measured 10days after each moult. As soon as the femalespawned, she was removed and retained in an

312 New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2005, Vol. 39

individual broodstock tank (capacity: 700 litre). Thenumber of eggs carried by the lobster was estimatedby using counts from three weighed subsamples,each having more than 200 eggs, and the weight ofthe whole egg mass. The total weight of whole eggmass was calculated as the difference between theweights just after spawning and after completerelease of larvae. The eggs were examined for thefertility status when first spawned and periodicallyuntil the release of larvae. Even when the female didnot retain any sperm mass, it was observed forfurther egg deposition for one more week, after therelease of the last batch of phyllosoma larvae, beforeit was returned to the broodstock tank. Temperature,salinity, pH, and dissolved oxygen in the broodstocktank were monitored daily.

The water quality parameters in the broodstocktank from January to December are plotted in Fig.1. Salinity ranged from 26.9 to 35.0 psu, temperaturefrom 24.9 to 31.2ºC, pH from 7.85 to 8.40, anddissolved oxygen from 4.79 to 6.47 mg/litre fromJanuary to December in 2003 in the broodstock tank.

RESULTS

The growth of male and female lobsters is given inFig. 2. Distinct increase in growth was observed afterthe lobsters were removed to the broodstock tank inJanuary and fed ad libitum with green mussel. In 18months from July 2001 to January 2003, the weightof the female increased from 596 to 1040 g, whereasthat of the male increased from 510 to 990 g.However the female, which moulted twice andattained the maximum weight of 1324 g (before firstmating) in May, lost weight once it mated andspawned in July 2003. It moulted once after the firstrelease of phyllosoma larva. In the 12-month periodin 2003, the weight of the female increased by 226 g.At the same time it lost 165 g in egg/larvalproduction. In the male, extension of intermoultperiod and reduction in weight gain was observedafter first mating. From January to July 2003, themale moulted 3 times and increased its weight by400 g. From July to December it moulted only onceand the weight increase was 199 g. Initially, whenthey were reared together with other species oflobsters, not all moultings were recorded andindividual growth was not monitored. From January2003, moults and growth after each moult wererecorded. The intermoult period ranged from 103 to130 days in the female and from 57 to 99 days inthe male.

The chronology of repetitive breeding andtemporal sequence of moulting, mating, spawning,and larval release are given in Table 1. The femalelobster mated and spawned 3 times within a periodof 6 months from July to December 2003, with twomatings in one intermoult period. The weight of eggsand the number of phyllosoma released are given inTable 2. A total of 1 625 683 eggs were producedand 1 135 827 phyllosoma larvae were releasedduring this period. The average hatching percentagewas 70.62 with a range of 62.92-77.01. On twooccasions, the larvae were released in two batches,with maximum release on the first day in the firstbrood and on the second day in the third brood.Remaining eggs, which were less than 1-2% of thetotal and were mostly unfertilised or malformed, andegg cases were shed along with the release of thesecond batch of larvae. When the larvae werereleased in one batch in the second brood, theremaining eggs and egg cases were shed 2 days afterthe release of the larvae. In addition, small amountsof eggs were shed on a few occasions before therelease of larvae. A single spawning was observedon the second or third day after mating. Even thougha sperm mass was present in the sternum, no secondspawning was observed over a 12-day period afterrelease of phyllosoma.

DISCUSSION

The growth rate of P. ornatus is considerably higherthan that obtained for P. homarus (Radhakrishnan& Vijayakumaran 1990; Vijayakumaran &Radhakrishnan 1997). The weight increase for 18months up to February 2003 was 444 g for femaleand 590 g for male. Higher weight increase wasobtained in the subsequent months because ofimprovement in the rearing conditions and provisionof abundant quantity of quality feed, the greenmussel. Despite this, the female lost weight once itstarted mating and spawning. Similar observationson reduction of weight in females after breedingstarts were reported in captive broodstock of P.homarus by Vijayakumaran et al. (2004a). The malegrew faster than the female but also lost weight afterit started mating. For commercial aquaculture, malesand females have to be grown separately after theyattain maturity to get maximum growth rate by pre-venting them from mating and breeding. However,this should not be a major problem in rearing P.ornatus, since maturity is attained at a larger sizethan the peak market size (<1 kg).

Senthil Murugan et al.—Captive breeding of P. ornatus 313

Fig. 1 Water quality parametersin the broodstock tank during2003. (DO, Dissolved oxygen.)

< j

0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Month

Fig.2 Growth of Panulirusornatus. Female attained first ma-turity in July 2003.

140

20

- 100

80

CO

28 40

20

D

yr

< r

f

<-y

2000

1800

1600

1400

1200 ~

1000

aoo

600

400

200

Jan Feb May2003 2003 2003

Jul Oct2003 2003

Jul Jun Dec2001 2002 2002

Rearing period (months)

^ H C L Male i iCL Female

—a—Weight Male - -•- -Weight Female

Dec2003

Fast growth rate and attainment of sexual maturityabove the size required for marketing, makes P.ornatus the most ideal species of spiny lobster foraquaculture. This study, even though involving onlya pair of lobsters, indicates that P. ornatus can besuccessfully bred in captivity to produce phyllosomathroughout the year. Three spawnings in 6 monthsjust after attaining sexual maturity confirm the view

expressed by Chittleborough (1976) and Vijayaku-maran et al. (2004a) that spiny lobsters can breed 6times or more in captivity if ideal conditions andnutritionally rich feed are given. The average broodsize of P. ornatus obtained in this study, 541 894 ±98 755 is much lower than the average of 1 121 507+ 576158 reported from wild breeders byVijayakumaran et al. (2004b). This could be because

314 New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2005, Vol. 39

Table 1 Chronology of repetitive spawning and temporal sequence of reproduction in Panulirus ornatus from Julyto December 2003.

Spawning details

FirstSecondThird

Mating

19 Jul 200322 Oct 200301 Dec 2003

Spawning

21 Jul 200325 Oct 200303 Dec 2003

DateLarval release

13 and 14 Aug 200316Nov2003

i 29 and 30 Dec 2003

Moulting

27 Sep 2003Did not moult before next mating

Table 2 Egg number and phyllosoma larvae released from one female Panulirus ornatus. (CL, Carapace length.)

CL(mm)

110.7111.0111.0

Body wt(g)

132013201324

No. ofbrood

FirstSecondThird

Egg wt Egg(g) no.

72 654 54046 470 22049 500 923

Phyllosomano.

411 866338 250385 771

Incubationperiod (days)

222226

of the small size of the breeder in its first year of eggproduction. It is reported that P. polyphagusproduces fewer eggs in the first year of eggproduction (Kagwade 1988a,b). Considerablereduction in brood size in repeat spawnings withinthe same season has been reported for Panulirusargus (Creaser 1950), P. japonicus (Ino 1950), P.inflatus (Briones & Lozano 1992), P. homarus(Vijayakumaran et al. 2004a), and P. ornatus(Macfarlane & Moore 1986). The results in thisstudy also indicate that the brood size was maximumin the first spawning and lower but about equal inthe second and third spawning. It is noteworthy thata second spawning from one mating, as reported inP. homarus (Vijayakumaran et al. 2004a) was notfound in P. ornatus.

Mating in some species of spiny lobsters occursafter the female moults, as the moult provides herwith fresh ovigerous setae on the endopods of pleo-pods for attachment of eggs (Kittaka & MacDiarmid1994). In P. ornatus, the length of the ovigeroussetae increases with every moult after maturity andno shedding of the setae was recorded at moult. Insome tropical species, a second mating takes placeeither before or after the release of larvae from theprevious brood (Creaser 1950; MacFarlane & Moore1986; Briones & Lozano 1992). In P. ornatus, asecond mating was observed 16 days after releaseof phyllosoma and complete shedding of theremaining eggs. Chittleborough (1976) observed thatmoulting and mating in the female might beseparated by 2-97 days in Panulirus cygnus. In P.ornatus, the interval between moulting and mating

was 63 days for the first and 25 days for the secondmating and moulting did not precede the thirdmating.

MacFarlane & Moore (1986) reported low levelsof infertility and egg loss in P. ornatus. In this studythe fertilisation was almost 100%, and on an average,70.62% hatching success was achieved. It couldfurther be improved in captive breeders as most ofthe egg loss was caused by handling and disturbanceof lobsters while taking measurements.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Dr P. V. Sreenivasan and Dr E. Vivekanandan,Principal Scientists, Central Marine Fisheries ResearchInstitute, Madras Research Centre, Chennai for criticallyreviewing the manuscript.

REFERENCES

Briones-Fourzan, P.; Lozano-Alvarez, E. 1992: Aspectsof reproduction of Panulirus inflatus (Bouvier)and P. gracilis Streets (Decapoda: Palinuridae)from the pacific coast of Mexico. Journal of Crus-tacean Biology 12: 41-50.

Chittleborough, R. G. 1976: Breeding of Panuliruslongipes cygnus George under natural and con-trolled conditions. Australian Journal of Marineand Freshwater Research 27: 499-516.

Senthil Murugan et al.—Captive breeding of P. ornatus 315

Creaser, E. P. 1950: Repetition of egg laying and numberof eggs of the Bermuda spiny lobster. Proceed-ings of the Gulf Caribbian Fisheries Institute 2:30-31.

Kagwade, P. V. 1988a: Reproduction in the spiny lobster,Panulirus polyphagus (Herbst). Journal of theMaine Biological Association of India 30(1 &2):37-46.

Kagwade, P. V. 1988b: Fecundity in the spiny lobster,Panulirus polyphagus (Herbst). Journal of theMaine Biological Association of India 30(1 &2):114-120.

Kittaka, J.; MacDiarmid, A. B. 1994: Breeding. In:Phillips, B. F.; Cobb, J. S.; Kittaka, J. ed. Spinylobster management. Pp. 384-401.

MacFarlane, J. W.; Moore, R. 1986: Reproduction of theornate rock lobster, Panulirus ornatus (Fabricius),in Papua New Guinea. Australian Journal of Ma-rine and Freshwater Research 37: 55-65.

Radhakrishnan, E. V.; Vijayakumaran, M. 1990: An as-sessment of potential of spiny lobster culture inIndia. Bulletin of Central Marine Fisheries Re-search Institute 44 (part 2): 416-427.

Tamn, G. R. 1980: Spiny lobster culture: an alternative tonatural stock assessment. Fisheries 5: 4.

Vijayakumaran, M.; Radhakrishnan, E. V. 1997: Spinylobster fattening and live transport. In: Proceed-ings of the Workshop, National AquacultureWeek, Aquaculture Foundation of India, Chennai.Pp. 97-103.

Vijayakumaran, M.; Senthil Murugan, T.; Remany, M.C.; Mary Leema, T.; Dilip Kumar Jha;Santhanakumar, J.; Venkatesan, R; Ravindran,M. 2004a: Captive breeding of the spiny lobsterPanulirus homarus (Linnaeus, 1758). 7th Inter-national Conference and Workshop on Biologyand Management of Lobsters, Hobart, Tasmania,8-13 February 2004. Abstract. P. 99.

Vijayakumaran, M.; Maharajan, A.; Rajalakshmi, S.;Jayagopal, P.; Subramanian, M. S. 2004b: Fecun-dity and viability of eggs in wild breeders of thespiny lobsters, Panulirus homarus (Linnaeus,1758), Panulirus versicolor (Latrielle, 1804) andPanulirus ornatus (Fabricius, 1798). 7th Interna-tional Conference and Workshop on Biology andManagement of Lobsters, Hobart, Tasmania, 8-13 February 2004. Abstract. P. 147.