Prey density for marine larvae

[LordJoshaeus]

Hi everyone! Sorry for posting so much the past few days, I just had problems finding this elsewhere...I have read that marine fry need a specific prey density range - too low and the larvae spend more calories hunting than they gain from digesting their prey, too high and the fry eat too much and much of the prey animal's nutritional value is not assimilated properly. My question is, what is this ideal prey density range a breeder should be shooting for? Thanks :)

 

[F i s h y]

I don't have a specific answer for you but I'll give you a BUMP so others see this and maybe answer. Happy reefing! :)

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Thanks! Funny enough, I found an answer after posting this...a thesis on rearing mandarinfish larvae found that 1+ copepod nauplii per ml worked well.

 

[Skydvr]

Got a link to that thesis?

Getting ready to start working with Psuedochromis fridmani (orchid dottyback) and some roundtail clowns (though I may get rid of them before they start putting down nests, I really don't like clowns and swore I would never own them). There are a couple of dragonetts on my list, but I haven't really started doing research on breeding them yet.

 

[Skydvr]

It seems to vary a little bit by species. Most of what I have seen so far is typically a little over 1/mL, but less than 2/mL.

What I read was more along the lines of constantly bumping into prey items and basically being overwhelmed or they stop recognizing them as prey items with the overload, leading to a reduced feeding rate.
Overloading the gut, leaving a lower dwell time, resulting in less nutrition gained seems a bit more plausible with an undeveloped digestive tract, especially with a species like dragonetts or pipefish that tend to have relatively short, inefficient digestive tracts (so the theory goes). At least this would seem to be more plausible if they don't have a mechanism to tell them that they are full or to turn off the feeding trigger from moving prey items.

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Got a link to that thesis?

Getting ready to start working with Psuedochromis fridmani (orchid dottyback) and some roundtail clowns (though I may get rid of them before they start putting down nests, I really don't like clowns and swore I would never own them). There are a couple of dragonetts on my list, but I haven't really started doing research on breeding them yet.

Here you go! The copepod in question is Parvocalanus;

https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/47308/1/47308-shao-2016-thesis.pdf

 

[Skydvr]

Thanks.

 

[ThRoewer]

Found this:
Culture Techniques of Marine Copepods

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Found this:
Culture Techniques of Marine Copepods

The link did not work for some reason

 

[ThRoewer]

Try this one: http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/13376/1/Culture Techniques of Marine Copepods_2019.pdf