Temperature dependent growth, feeding, nutritional condition and aerobic metabolism of juvenile spiny lobster, Sagmariasus verreauxi

We examined the effects of temperature on the growth, feeding, nutritional condition and aerobic metabolism of juvenile spiny lobster, Sagmariasus verreauxi, in order to determine if temperature acclimated aerobic scope correlates with optimum for growth and to establish the thermal tolerance window for this emerging aquaculture species. Juvenile lobsters (initial weight = 10.95 ± 0.47 g) were reared (n = 7) at temperatures from 11.0 to 28.5 °C for 145 days. All lobsters survived from 14.5 to 25.0 °C while survival was reduced at 11.0 °C (86%) and all lobsters died at 28.5 °C. Lobster specific growth rate and specific feed consumption displayed a unimodal response with temperature, peaking at 21.5 °C. Lobster standard, routine and maximum metabolic rates, and aerobic scope all increased exponentially up to maximum non-lethal temperature. Optimum temperature for growth did not correspond to that for maximum aerobic scope suggesting that aerobic scope is not an effective predictor of the thermal optimum of spiny lobsters. Plateauing of specific feed consumption beyond 21.5 °C suggests that temperature dependent growth of lobsters is limited by capacity to ingest or digest sufficient food to meet increasing maintenance metabolic demands at high temperatures. The nutritional condition of lobsters was not influenced by temperature and feed conversion ratio was improved at lower temperatures. These findings add to a growing body of evidence questioning the generality of aerobic scope to describe the physiological thermal boundaries of aquatic ectotherms and suggest that feed intake plays a crucial role in regulating performance at thermal extremes.