Feeding,defaecation and absorption efficiency in the Cape rock lobster jasus lalandii |
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| Abstract: | In order to estimate the absorption rate of carbon by the palinurid lobster Jasus lalandii, the net quantity of ingested carbon and gross carbon content of faeces must be known. Experimental animals were selected for consistent feeding and subsequently starved for 72 h. Ingested carbon was established by determining the carbon content of the prey mussel Choromytilus meridionalis under controlled aquarium conditions through five eating/defaecating cycles. The losses of particulate and dissolved organic carbon due to messy feeding were measured and amounted to 20,1 per cent of the food presented. Of the net carbon ingested, 20,5 per cent was voided as faeces, thereby giving a mean absorption efficiency of 79,5 per cent (n = 15, SD = 4,6%). J. lalandii, as a top carnivore in the inshore Benguela ecosystem, is therefore highly efficient in the utilization of ingested carbon. In animals of commercial size (≥ 89 mm carapace length), small variations in absorption efficiencies exhibited were neither dependent on body mass nor ingested mass, but may rather be attributed to scatter inherent in all biological systems. |
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| Keywords: | agarophyte gel properties reproductive seasonality vegetative |
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