New marine ornamental species: the potential of Moon jellyfish Aurelia aurita
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1
MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ESTM, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Portugal
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2
AQUASPROSEA, Portugal
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3
ADN - Aquarium Design, Portugal
The marine ornamental industry has grown in last years and jellyfish are considered a new group with potential for ornamental market. In addition there has been recognized the importance of jellyfish organisms and their associated bacteria as a potential source of marine natural products (MNPs).
In the last years many jellyfish mass blooms are reported. The seasonality of these occurrences compromises the utilization of collected wild jellyfish for the ornamental trade. Also, in line with this view, it has been recommended that future research on marine natural products should consider the use of specimens produced in captivity. This approach allows a more reliable obtainment of organisms by manipulating the culture conditions, permitting the control over the life cycle of the species, which is season, environmental and weather independent,. Furthermore, the application of abiotic stressors in aquarium cultures, such as nutrient, temperature, illumination, UV radiation or pH could enhance the MNPs production.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of diet on survival and growth of newly released Aurelia aurita ephyra larvae. Four diets were tested: (A) Artemia sp. nauplii, (10 ind./mL); (B) Artemia sp. nauplii, (10 ind./mL) + Reef Zooplankton™ (1 mL/L); (C) Artemia sp. nauplii, (10 ind./mL) + Reef Phytoplankton™ (1 mL/L); and (D) Artemia sp. nauplii, (10 ind./mL) + microalgae Isochrysis galbana (50000 cells/mL). 360 newly released A. aurita ephyra obtained by strobilation of a population of polyps maintained in captivity at our facilities were randomly distributed into twelve cilyndroconic tanks (1,5L) at stocking density of 20 ephyra/L (3 replicates for each diet). During 8 days these tanks, with a water salinity of 35, were maintained in a controlled room temperature (22°C±1°C) with a 14:10 light-dark cycle. Every day 100% of water was changed. The ephyra were fed daily according to quantities indicated in the four diets composition.
The mean survival reached in different diets varied between 80.0±10.1 to 91.7 ±4.8%, but no statistically differences were obtained (p-value>0.05). There were statistically significant differences on growth when compared the diets (p-value <0.05). Additionally, it was observed that best growth occurs on diet C where ephyra reached a mean diameter of 3.618±0.16 mm. The ephyra mean diameter on the other diets was 2.045±0.26 mm (diet A), 2.514 ±0.29 mm (diet B) and 2.003±0.26 mm (diet D).
The present study provides clear evidence of the positive role of the diet constituted by Artemia sp. nauplii and Reef Phytoplankton™ on survival and growth of A. aurita. However, due to the necessity of optimization of the conditions for culture of jellyfish for ornamental trade and as source of MNPs, more studies are necessary to turn the mass production of this species profitable.
Keywords:
Aurelia aurita,
jellyfish,
Ornamental aquaculture,
Marine Natural Products,
Ephyra
Conference:
IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2016, Peniche, Portugal, 14 Jul - 15 Jul, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Poster presentation
Topic:
Aquaculture
Citation:
Chambel
J,
Araújo
T,
Mendes
C,
Miranda
F,
Câncio
L,
Maranhão
P and
Pedrosa
R
(2016). New marine ornamental species: the potential of Moon jellyfish Aurelia aurita.
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2016.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.04.00047
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Received:
14 May 2016;
Published Online:
13 Jul 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. João Chambel, MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ESTM, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Peniche, 2520-641, Portugal, joao.chambel@ipleiria.pt