Larviculture of the sand clam cultivated in different densities

Abstract

The development of technologies for the cultivation of larvae and post-larvae in the laboratory is an alternative to supply the reduction of natural stocks of Anomalocardia brasiliana. In order to improve the technology of mollusc production in the laboratory, the present work evaluated the effect of culture density on the survival and growth of larvae and post-larvae of A. brasiliana. Two experiments were conducted, the first evaluated the density in the veliger larvae culture, testing densities of 2, 6 and 10 larvae mL^-1 for seven days. In the second, densities of 60 and 120 post-larvae cm^-2 were tested, for 38 days. In the culture of veliger larvae, better results were found for survival and growth in the densities of 2 and 6 larvae mL^-1. When evaluated for density in post-larvae culture, the best results for both survival and length were obtained at the density of 60 post-larvae cm^-2, with 93.81 ± 0.68% and 2.18 ± 0.18 mm, respectively. Thus, to optimize productivity, it is recommended a density of 6 larvae mL^-1 (veliger larvae) and 60 post-larvae cm^-2 for the cultivation of A. brasiliana in the laboratory.