FEEDING HABITS OF THE SAND SHRIMP CRANGON SEPTEMSPINOSA

¹ Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island. Kingston, Rhode Island 02881

Laboratory studies were conducted to compare growth rates of the estuarine sand shrimp Crangon septemspinosa on various natural and artificial diets. Field studies examined the types of food consumed by the shrimp.

In nature, 85% of the material in the stomach is organic debris; sand, crustacean parts, copepods, plant material and polychaetes make up the remainder. Some of the organic debris results from trituration of ingested tissues, but an undetermined portion is ingested as detritus.

In the laboratory, shrimp grow rapidly on diets of Artemia salina, Mercenaria mercenaria and hard-boiled egg. Fish meal, copepods, beef liver, tropical fish food, agar enriched with glycogen, bacteria, and Spartina alterniflora detritus with associated microflora are also utilized, but growth is retarded.

Crangon septemspinosa utilizes a variety of foods. The shrimp have a preference for animal tissues of marine origin and grow best on these foods, but they have the ability to utilize food of microbial and terrestrial origins.