On the use of dry seaweeds and condensed phytoplankton as diets for the clam Venerupis aurea, Egypt

Mohammad, Samya; El-Shoubaky, Gihan; Madkour, Fedekar

doi:10.21608/ejabf.2008.2016

On the use of dry seaweeds and condensed phytoplankton as diets for the clam Venerupis aurea, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Zoology, Faculty of Sci., Suez Canal Univ., Port Said, Egypt

² Department of Botany, Faculty of Sci., Suez Canal Univ., Port Said, Egypt

³ Department of Marine Scie., Faculty of Sci., Suez Canal Univ., Port Said, Egypt

10.21608/ejabf.2008.2016

Abstract

One of the most commercially important species of the marine clam Venerupis aurea was fed on dry preparations of seaweeds (Enteromorpha intestinalis and Ulva lactuca) and condensed preparation of phytoplankton.
Daily growth rate (DGR) of clams as live wet weight increase was calculated to determine the effect of different diets. Comparing DGR of feeding bivalves with that of control, some variations were recorded. Higher growth over control was
obtained for juvenile Venerupis aurea (3-6 mm) fed on phytoplankton and Enteromorpha intestinalis. For the clam size 6.1-9 mm, the bivalves fed on Enteromorpha intestinalis and Ulva lactuca showed higher growth. The largest
clam size (9.1-12 mm) which was fed on the previous diets, failed to attain the same growth as control. So, the differentiation in growth was related to size of clam and also to type of the diet.

Keywords