Abstract
The Patagonian red octopus Enteroctopus megalocyathus is a merobenthic cephalopod endemic to the coasts of Chile and Argentina and holds second place in the octopus fishery in Chile, which has caused their over-exploitation and the consequent need to implement the cultivation of the species. Currently, the greatest limitation for the culture is the low survival in the paralarval phase. One of the causes of mortality is cannibalism, which is triggered by overcrowding and lack of food. The objective of this study was to determine the balance point between food availability and paralarvae density for reducing cannibalism in the first 30 days of culture, where the highest mortality rates have been observed for E. megalocyathus. For this, densities of 1, 5, 10 and 15 paralarvae L−1 combined with the availability of 0, 2, 5 and 10 preys paralarvae−1 day−1 were tested, evaluating both performance and cannibalism. The results showed no effect of paralarval culture density on the variables studied, but there was a significant effect of prey availability on paralarvae survival, as on cannibalism and food intake of them. The cannibalism was minimized both in low and high paralarvae densities, when the prey availability was increased, reducing cannibalism to values lower than 5% of the total mortality.
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