Dra. Sobenes-Vennekool, Catterina

Choosing an alternative species of mussel for the aquaculture industries, will be possible if it has equal or greater yield than the mussel cultivated. This study compares the growth of the chilean native mussel Mytilus chilensis with the non-native Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis and evaluate if environmental variables and cultivation depth affects mussels growth. Mussel were seeded in summer, with the same mean total weight and shell length for both species. At the end of the experiment, shell length (SL), condition index and gonadosomatic index were compared over month, depth and species. Highly significant differences were found in shell length between month and depth and between month and species (p < 0.05). The linear relationship between the gonad weight and wet meat weight in M. chilensis present a higher gonad weight for the same wet meat weight than M. galloprovincialis. It can be concluded that at the end of the harvest size cultivation M. chilensis presents a greater gonad weight, condition index and gonadosomatic index.

This study evaluated the efect of fsh total length (LT) and three water temperatures (10, 15 and 20 °C) on the critical swimming speed (Ucrit) of the species Percilia irwini (2.9–6.3 cm LT), Cheirodon galusdae (3.4–5.5 cm LT), and Trichomycterus areolatus (4.0–6.3 cm LT). An Ucrit estimation model was constructed for each species as a function of temperature and size. The results showed mean Ucrit for P. irwini of 44.56, 53.83 and 63.2 cm ­s−1 at 10, 15 and 20 °C, respectively: 55.34, 61.74 and 70.05 cm ­s−1 for C. galusdae and 56.18, 63.01 and 71.09 cm ­s−1 for T. areolatus. Critical velocity depended on the interaction between species, body length and water. The swimming performance increased signifcantly with rising temperature in all three species. The velocity also increased with greater fsh total length. After controlling for fsh total length, velocity also increased with higher temperature in the three species. This research is relevant to small fsh species that require conservation measures.