New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Techniques for enhancing larval settlement of the abalone, Haliotis iris, on artificial surfaces

GRAEME A. MOSS LENNARDJ.TONG

MAF Fisheries
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
P. O. Box 297, Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract The number of Haliotis iris larvae that settle on an artificial surface can be increased by lengthening the natural conditioning period of the surface. Gamma-aminobutyric, acid (GABA) used without exclusion of bacteria, hastened but did not significantly improve the settlement of the larvae or numbers of post-larvae. The results are discussed in relation to hatchery production of juvenile abalone.

Keywords Haliotis iris; enhanced settlement; artificial surfaces; conditioning; GABA On lAthothamnion, later-stage//, iris larvae settle, stay, and survive in greater numbers than earlier stages as a result of increased metamorphic competency (Moss & Tong 1992). Poor settlement on an artificial surface was possibly a result of insufficient conditioning (Moss & Tong 1992) and may have reflected the lack of suitable settlement cues. To develop a commercial system we needed to investigate methods to enhance and produce a consistent settlement on an artificial surface. This paper describes experiments to enhance, settlement of late-stage//, iris larvae (9-12 rows of chitinised teeth in the radula) on an acrylic surface. Our aim was to determine whether conditioning a surface for longer would increase settlement and whether the use of a settlement inducer, such as gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) (Morse 1991) would be more effective.

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1992, Vol. 26: The Royal Society of New Zealand 1992
Received 21 June 1991; accepted 15 October 1991

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (362K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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