Life history responses to variations in temperature by the marine amphipod Eogammarus possjeticus (Gammaridae) and their implications for productivity in aquaculture

The amphipod Eogammarus possjeticus is used as a potential living food in shrimp culture. Nevertheless, the productivity of the amphipod has been poorly studied. We conducted laboratory experiments to investigate the effects of temperature on the individual development and biomass production of E. possjeticus. The results revealed that the embryonic development time of E. possjeticus was shortened when temperature increased from 15 to 27°C, and the shortest juvenile development time appeared at 21°C. The survival rate of juveniles decreased with increasing temperature, and the maximum specific growth rate was found at 21°C. Thus, a temperature of 21°C was found to be the optimum temperature for biomass production of E. possjeticus in the laboratory. A population growth model was constructed with the experiment data based on the continuous population growth determination assumption. The longest survival time of E. possjeticus was about 260 days, and the optimal output quantity was up to 3.27 × 108 individuals, which was 1.60 × 106 times of the initial cultured individuals under the ideal indoor experiments conditions. Our research shows that E. possjeticus has potential to be cultured under controlled conditions at a commercial scale and serve as a food for intensive shrimp aquaculture.