Advances in Aquaculture and Fisheries Management

Advances in Aquaculture and Fisheries Management ISSN 2756-3278 Vol. 4 (12), pp. 001-009, December, 2016. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper 

Growing the threatened seahorse Hippocampus erectus Perry 1810 in the laboratory

Rosana Beatriz Silveira1and José Rodrigo Santos Silva1,2

¹Laboratório de Aquicultura Marinha-LABAQUAC/Projeto Hippocampus, Porto de Galinhas, Ipojuca-PE, Brazil.
²Departamento de Estatística e Ciências Atuariais, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão-SE, Brazil.

Accepted 04 June, 2016

Abstract

In Brazil, a seahorse pair of Hippocampus erectus was collected, and in captivity, mating and copulation occurred, followed by a pregnancy period of 12 days. The fry at birth had a mean height of 7.07 ± 0.947 mm and weight of 0.0037 ± 0.0049 g. The initial feed consisted of zooplankton up to the 10th day, and subsequently, they were fed nauplii and juveniles of Artemia salina and marine shrimp Litopnaeus vannamei. At 53 and 91 days of life, the animals had a mean height of 4.36 ± 0.315 and 6.03 ± 0.409 cm and mean weight of 0.377 ± 0.074 and 0.910 ± 0.172 g, respectively. At formation of the male's brood pouch, at 114 days of life, the mean height was 6.26 ± 0.374 cm and weight 0.9363 ± 0.1681 g. It was estimated that between 53 and 91 days of age, for every centimeter the seahorse grew, it gained about 0.3215 grams, where the equation height-weight obtained was W = 0.00731 L2.67728. Sexual maturity was reached at a height of 8.05 ± 0.56 cm. The size of the gestational period was 17.2 ± 6.70 days, and number of offspring produced was 377 ± 35.36 per pregnancy.

Keywords: diet, height-weight ratio, fertility, brood pouch, sex ratio, Artemia salina, Litopenaeus vannamei, Syngnathidae.