Abstract
Dwarf surf clam, Mulinia lateralis, is widely considered as a model species for bivalves. The development of a standard culture system could greatly promote the production of high-quality individuals, yet information on the culture conditions for M. lateralis spat is still limited. This study aims to determine the suitable microalgae diet, temperature, and salinity for M. lateralis spat culture. The typically fed microalgae species, including Chlorella pyrenoidesa (Cp), Platymonas helgolandica (Ph), Dunaliella salina (Ds), Nitzschia closterium (Nc), and Chaetoceros muelleri (Cm), could be taken up by M. lateralis spat, and their filtration rates on Cp, Nc, and Cm were higher than those on Ds and Ph. For the entire spat culture, all diet trials showed similar survival percentages, while the mono-specific diet Cp exhibited the highest growth rate, suggesting that Cp was the optimal microalgae species for M. lateralis spat. Through simultaneously maximizing the growth and survival of spat, the optimal microalgae concentration and stocking density were 5 × 104 cells ml–1 and 400–600 individuals m–2 for 30–40-day-old spat as well as 1 × 105 cells ml–1 and 400–600 individuals m–2 for 40–50-day-old spat, respectively. In addition, the spat had higher growth rates and survival percentages at the temperature of 20–22°C and salinity of 22–25 ppt. The results of this study provide a basis for further culture of M. lateralis spat, and the optimized conditions will be of great significance for the construction of the standard culture system of M. lateralis.
Highlights
The dwarf surf clam, Mulinia lateralis (Say 1822), is a typical burrowing bivalve, which mainly occurs along the Atlantic coast from Canada to Mexico (Calabrese, 1970a)
Some signs of progress have been made in the physiological ecology, reproduction, and artificial culture of M. lateralis, which laid a solid foundation for further research (Calabrese, 1969b; Shumway, 1983; Shumway et al, 1983; Shumway and Newell, 1984; Yang et al, 2021)
The analysis of variance (ANOVA) test showed that there was a significant difference among different trials (F = 9.123, p < 0.01, Supplementary Table 1)
Summary
The dwarf surf clam, Mulinia lateralis (Say 1822), is a typical burrowing bivalve, which mainly occurs along the Atlantic coast from Canada to Mexico (Calabrese, 1970a). It usually inhabits substrate of sandy and muddy in the estuarine and intertidal zones and can be found in dense populations (Walker and Tenore, 1984). M. lateralis is a small bivalve with an adult shell length of approximately 15–20 mm and reaches sexual maturation in 2 months (Calabrese, 1969a, 1970b) This species is dioecious with an XX-female and XY-male system of sex determination and presents a continuous reproductive cycle (Calabrese, 1970b; Guo and Allen, 1994). While spawning induction and subsequent culture of M. lateralis can be achieved in the laboratory (Calabrese, 1969a; Rhodes et al, 1975), a major challenge impeding production of this species remains the lack of standardized culture protocols
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