Metabolic responses to natural and artificial feeding on the Caribbean Spiny Lobter juveniles, Panulirus argus (Latreille, 1804)

Abstract

With the objective of evaluating the metabolic response and the calorigenic effect of the natural and artificial feeding in spiny lobster Panulirus argus juveniles, experiments were made in a dynamic respirometer where cameras worked as aquatic metabolic cages, allowing the determination of the oxygen consumption and the ammonia excretion during the fast and the feeding. The bioenergetics index was calculated, apparent heat increment (AHI), postpandrial nitrogen excretion (PPNE) and the atomic ration O:N. The studied foods were the mollusks, Lima scabra, chiton Acanthopleura granullata, and sea snail Littorina mespillum; the black sea urchin Echinometra lucunter, the crab Plagussia depressa; and two isocaloric foods that contain 25 and 45 protein%. To the artificial foods, the chiton and the sea urchin a bromathologic analysis was carried out. During the 6 hours of experimentation, for the chiton A. granullata, the VO2/W increased to 2.4 times the value of the fast, which represents 2454 joules kg^-1bh.h^-1, while the U/W took a value 2.9 times higher, equivalent to 632 joules kg^-1bh.h^-1. The ratio O:N diminished at 12.9, indicating the catabolism of proteins. Results are compared with the following observation not in all the cases, the proteins are used as an energy substrate, mainly in those species in which the lipids are well represented. Elements are analyzed in order to confirm the strict carnivory of this species.