Successful commercial aquaculture production of spiny lobster is, for the most part,
still constrained by an array challenges including the development of nutritionally
complete and cost-effective feeds, control of disease vectors, and the design of larval
mass culture tanks. Culture tank designs for larval production are a critical step to
facilitating the most favorable combinations of water flow, food contact, and larval
survivorship over the course of development. The evolution of new plankton-kreisels that
are used by aquariums to culture and exhibit gelatinous zooplankton (e.g., jellyfish)
provide a unique opportunity for testing the feasibility for spiny lobster larval culture,
particularly with tropical species such as Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus
argus) whose larval duration, although complex, is comparatively shorter than
other spiny lobsters. Here, we report on the feasibility of culturing P. argus
larvae (i.e., phyllosoma) from hatch to Stage VI using large (180 L) modified
acrylic plankton-kreisels. We compared overall growth and survival of phyllosoma at
starting densities of 5000 (~27.8 larvae L-1) and 2500 individuals (~13.8
larvae L-1) and found no significant difference with respect to survival or
mortality through to 65 days (χ2 = 1.595;
df = 1; p = 0.2066) resulting in mean survival rates of
60.7% (s.e. = ±3.7) and 54.5% (s.e. = ±3.2), respectively. Comparable growth was also
achieved between both densities to Stages V and VI (mean body lengths of 7.5 and 10.2 mm,
respectively) at 25.1 ± 0.41 °C and pH = 8.1. Phyllosoma utilized the entire
tank volume and displayed minimal entanglement. The application of such tank designs for
larval spiny lobster culture not only contributes to future designs for aquaculture
production, but also provides a useful platform for conducting behavioral studies for this
complex larval phase.