Effects of Salinity Fluctuation Frequency on the Growth, Molting Rate and Hemolymph 20-Hydroxyecdysone Concentration in Juvenile Chinese shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis

This experiment was conducted to examine the effects of salinity fluctuation frequency on the growth, molting rate and hemolymph 20-hydroxyecdysone (20-HE) concentration for juvenile Fenneropenaeus chinensis with an initial wet body weight of 1.115 g±0.012 g. The salinity of the control treatment (represented by D0) was 28 throughout the experiment, whereas treatments D2, D4, D6 and D8 were subjected to different salinity fluctuation frequencies of 2, 4, 6 and 8 d, respectively. The range of salinity fluctuation was 4. The salinity in treatments D2, D4, D6 and D8 was kept at 28 for 2, 4, 6 and 8 d, respectively; each original salinity was decreased abruptly to salinity 24, which first lasted for another 2 d and was then raised to its initial value 28. This constituted a salinity fluctuation cycle and afterwards the cycle repeated. It was found that: 1) The weight gain of shrimp in treatment D4 was 202.9% and significantly higher than that in treatment D0 (P 0.05). During the pre-molt stage, the hemolymph 20-HE concentration in treatment D6 was significantly higher than that in treatment D0 (P<0.05), whereas the hemolymph 20-HE concentration in treatment D2 was significantly lower than that in other treatments (P<0.05). Adequate salinity fluctuation promoted the molting rate through increasing hemolymph 20-HE concentration at the pre-molt stage.