Growth and morphometric characteristics of the scallop <i>Flexopecten glaber </i>(Bivalvia: Pectinidae) reared in cages off the coast of Crimea (Black Sea)

Abstract

The spat of the scallop Flexopecten glaber were collected in cages with the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas cultured on a mussel-and-oyster farm (outer roadstead of Sevastopol Bay). For two years they were reared in plastic cages at a depth of 2-3 m. The cages were periodically withdrawn to measure the size and weight parameters of the molluscs: the length (L, mm), height (H, mm), and width (D, mm) of shells and the total live weight (W, g). The correlations among the parameters under study are presented. The changes in the indices of the frontal (D/L) and sagittal (H/L) curvatures, convexity ((H+D)/L) and conditional volume (H×D×L/1000) of the shells in ontogenesis are shown. Upon reaching a shell length of 30-35 mm, the allometry of the volumetric and weight growth of molluscs changed from positive to negative. The largest values of the shell convexity index were registered in thesame length range. A conclusion about the interval-type growth of F. glaber in linear size and weight is made. It is suggested that the optimal strategy of shell formation in F. glaber in ontogenesis implies the ripening and the first reproduction of the molluscs occurring at the highest volumetric characteristics of the shell. The relationships for the linear size and weight growth ofF. glaber in the first two years of life are obtained. It is concluded that the scallop F. glaber should be considered as a possible element for the diversification of the existing aquaculture of molluscs (mussels and oysters) off the coast of Crimea.