Abstract
The yellow clam Mesodesma mactroides (Reeve, 1854) is a sand mollusc with historical and socioeconomic importance in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. A guaranteed form to access a successful reestablishment of the species in their natural environment is directly linked to their reproduction biology. Then, our report introduces the embryonic and larval development of the yellow clam reared in laboratory for such purposes. M. mactroides broodstock were selected as specimens who possess a mean total shell length and weight of 66 ± 3.82 mm and 27.15 ± 4.07 g for an afterwards spawn induction through stripping technique. Regarding the embryonic development, newly fertilized oocytes exhibited a mean diameter of 51.20 ± 6.64 μm. The first polar corpuscle, trochophores and D-veliger appeared at 20 min, 18 and 24 h after fertilization, respectively. Umbonate and pediveliger larvae were noticed on the 8th and 25th day, respectively, with complete metamorphosis occurring only at the 27th day, when all larvae were retained in a 200 μm nylon mesh. Therefore, with that basic understanding of the embryonic and larval development of M. mactroides in the laboratory, forwards studies will focus in establish a technological package for this species.
Highlights
M. mactroides is distributed from the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Buenos Aires, Argentina (Rios 1994), standing out for its historical fishing value in these regions
Fifty adult specimens of M. mactroides were collected in April 2017, during a low tide in the tidal zone of Mar Grosso beach, in the municipality of São José do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (32°3’10”S 51°59’26”W)
We used a salinity of 32 ppt, which is close to the mean values found by Santos et al (2016) in specific and seasonal analyses in places of occurrence of the yellow clam, which remained adequate until the end of the experiment. These results provide an understanding of the embryonic and larval development of this species, serving as a basis for future research, e.g. effect of salinity and temperature on the survival and yield of embryos and larvae, as well as studies related to diets, in order to establish a complete technological package for this species. This experiment showed that spawning using the stripping method is efficient for obtaining viable gametes
Summary
Mesodesmatidae is a socioeconomically important family of sand molluscs throughout the world, including promising species for aquaculture (Santos et al 2016) such as toheroa (Paphies ventricosa) (Redfearn 1982, Gadomski et al 2015) and pipi (Paphies australis) (Hooker 1997) in New Zealand, macha (Mesodesma donacium) (Uriarte 2008, Ayerbe et al 2017) in Chile and Peru, and the yellow clam Mesodesma mactroides (Reeve, 1854) in southern South America. The cultivation of yellow clam in the laboratory has been considered an option to foster repopulation programs and aquaculture activities, as it has already occurred with M. donacium in Peru (Ayerbe et al 2017). The knowledge about the cultivation of M. mactroides, as many other tropical native species with commerce potential, is still lacking
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