Invertebrate Reproduction & Development ISSN: 0792-4259 (Print) 2157-0272 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tinv20 Reproductive potential of four freshwater prawn species in the Amazon region Leo Jaime Filgueira de Oliveira, Bruno Sampaio Sant’Anna & Gustavo Yomar Hattori To cite this article: Leo Jaime Filgueira de Oliveira, Bruno Sampaio Sant’Anna & Gustavo Yomar Hattori (2017) Reproductive potential of four freshwater prawn species in the Amazon region, Invertebrate Reproduction & Development, 61:4, 290-296, DOI: 10.1080/07924259.2017.1365099 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/07924259.2017.1365099 Published online: 21 Aug 2017. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 43 View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=tinv20 INVERTEBRATE REPRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT, 2017 VOL. 61, NO. 4, 290–296 https://doi.org/10.1080/07924259.2017.1365099 Reproductive potential of four freshwater prawn species in the Amazon region Leo Jaime Filgueira de Oliveira†, Bruno Sampaio Sant’Anna and Gustavo Yomar Hattori Instituto de Ciências Exatas e Tecnologia (ICET), Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), Itacoatiara, Brazil ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY The bioecology of freshwater prawns can be understood by studying their reproductive biology. Received 1 June 2017 Thus, the aim of this paper was to determine and compare the reproductive potential of four Accepted 4 August 2017 freshwater caridean prawns collected in the Amazon region. For two years, we captured females KEYWORDS of Macrobrachium brasiliense, Palaemon carteri, Pseudopalaemon chryseus and Euryrhynchus Caridea; Euryrhynchidae; amazoniensis from inland streams in the municipality of Itacoatiara (AM). At the laboratory, we fecundity; freshwater prawn; measured the biometric variables total length, carapace length, abdomen length and total weight, Palaemonidae; reproduction and recorded the number of eggs (NE) by direct counting. There was a significant difference for all variables between the species. The females of M. brasiliense were the most abundant and had the largest sizes and NE. However, the fecundity index shows that P. carteri has the highest reproductive potential of the four species. Despite the differences in size and weight, all the species showed low fecundity, which is a characteristic of continental palemonidean K strategist prawns. Introduction 1758) in Choudhury (1971). However, the prawns that inhabit inland streams adapted their bioecology to a sys- The order Decapoda comprises crustaceans of ecological tem with cyclic flood pulses (Walker and Ferreira1985 ; importance (Whiteley 2011) that play a key role in several Junk et al. 1989; Bittencourt and Amadio 2007) and their trophic levels (Collins et al. 2007). It is known that the larger reproductive strategies are related to the hydrological and most abundant species are used as food by humans regime of the Amazon region described by Junk et al. (Magalhães et al. 2006), but there is a great variety of small species that contribute to the functioning of ecosystems in (1989). Moreover, these animals produce few eggs of a which they live (Moulton et al. 2004), although they have large volume that hatch juveniles in advanced develop- no commercial value. ment stages (see Magalhães and Walker 1988). Regarding the abundance of freshwater prawn species, The freshwater prawns Macrobrachium brasil- the family Palaemonidae Rafinesque, 1815 is among the iense (Heller, 1862), Palaemon carteri (Gordon, 1935), most abundant in Brazil (Melo 2003). Of this family, the Pseudopalaemon chryseus Kensley and Walker, 1982 and genus Macrobrachium Bate, 1862 is the most abundant, Euryrhynchus amazoniensis Tiefenbacher, 1978 have full with 18 species throughout Brazil. The genera Palaemon ontogeny in freshwater environments with epimorphic Weber, 1795 and Pseudopalaemon Sollaud 1911 are less development in abbreviated larval stages (Magalhães representative, both with five species (Melo 2003). The and Walker 1988). They are commonly found in blackwater family Euryrhynchidae Holthuis, 1950 has five freshwater rivers (Walker and Ferreira 1985) and in submerged litter. species of the genus Euryrhynchus Miers, 1877 that inhabit Some of these species are associated with macrophytes the Amazon region (De Grave and Fransen 2011). (Montoya 2003; Paschoal et al. 2013). Freshwater prawns of the genus Macrobrachium can Genetic and environmental factors determine the abso- grow and mate in freshwater environments, but most spe- lute number of eggs carried in all the clutches of females, cies require brackish water for their larval development and the relative number of eggs carried in a single spawn – (Pinheiro and Hebling 1998). In these environments, carid- individual fecundity – has a linear relationship with the size ean prawns produce many eggs of a small volume. Their of females (Valenti et al. 1989; Bilgin and Samsun 2006). offspring hatch in an initial stage and complete 12 larval According to Corey and Reid (1991), fecundity is related stages as described for Macrobrachium carcinus (Linnaeus, to environmental adaptations, variations in the animal’s CONTACT Leo Jaime Filgueira de Oliveira [email protected] †Present address: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias – FCAV, Centro de Aquicultura – CAUNESP, Departamento de Biologia Aplicada à Agropecuária – DBAA and Laboratório de Morfologia de Invertebrados – IML, Universidade Estadual Paulista ‘Júlio de Mesquita Filho’ – UNESP, Jaboticabal, Brazil © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group INVERTEBRATE REPRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT 291 size and geographic location. Furthermore, there may fixed in 70% alcohol and transported to the laboratory. be considerable loss of eggs, which can result in a better Subsequently, the prawns were examined under a stere- adjustment of egg mass in the pleura (Nazari et al. 2003). omicroscope coupled to an imaging system for identifica- García-Dávila et al. (2000) and Pereira and Chacur (2009) tion, according to Melo (2003). conducted studies on the reproductive biology of M. bra- siliense. Moreover, the reproductive strategy of P. carteri Biometry and statistical analysis was investigated in the Rio Negro by Collart and Enriconi (1993), as well as fecundity including a comparison of After identification, the samples were measured for total egg volume between embryonic stages of development length (TL), which is from the base of eyestalk to the distal (Santos and Vieira 2016). Studies on Ps. chryseus and E. end of the telson, and carapace length (CL) with a caliper amazoniensis are scarce and we only found information on (0.05 mm). Abdomen length (AL) was obtained by calcu- the larval development of both species (Magalhães 1986a, lating the difference between TL and CL. Later, the females 1988; Odinetz-Collart and Magalhães 1994). were weighed to determine total wet weight (TW) on a The evident scarcity of studies on the reproductive biol- digital scale (0.001 g). The eggs were removed from the ogy of prawns in the Amazon region can be associated pleopods of each female and directly counted to record with the difficulty of capturing some species and the lack the total number of eggs (NE). of specialists in the area. Thus, the aim of this paper was The sizes of the females and absolute fecundity of the to fill the information gaps on the reproductive biology four species were compared separately using analysis of of freshwater caridean prawns. We investigated the repro- variance (ANOVA) followed by the Tukey test (Zar 2010). ductive potential of four prawn species of the Amazon The biometric variables (TL, CL, AL, TW) were considered region, namely M. brasiliense, P. carteri, Ps. Chryseus and independent and confronted by the variable NE (depend- E. amazoniensis captured at inland streams in the Middle ent) by simple analysis of linear regression. The most suit- Amazon region and compared the fecundity of the spe- able mathematical model to represent the relationship cies and the relationship between the size and fecundity between the number of eggs and the other variables was of females. determined by adjusting the coefficient of determination (R2). The F test verified the significance of each regression. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare Material and methods the slope and the intercept of the obtained straight in Study area and data collection the regression analysis between species (Zar 2010), con- sidering the size and fecundity as variables. The fecundity The females of all four species were collected in the index (FI) was calculated according to the ratio FI = NE/CL municipality of Itacoatiara, AM, Brazil, from July 2011 to (Mansur and Hebling 2002), and the ratio FI = NE/TW. Then, August 2013. Ovigerous females of Macrobrachium bra- ANOVA followed by the Tukey test were used to compare siliense and Pseudopalaemon chryseus were caught in the FI among the species. It was then possible to compare river Carú (03°02′39″S, 58°37′32″W). Females of Palaemon the fecundity of the species excluding the effect of the size carteri were captured in lakes Serpa (03°07′23.3″S, and weight. For all analyses, we adopted a significance 58°27′0.10″W), Poranga (03°07′11.4″S, 58°27′13.0″W), level of p < 0.05 (Sokal and Rohlf 1995). Centenário (03°08′24.5″S, 58°27′24.60″W) and Aeroporto (03°07′23.53″S, 58°27′0.25″W). Ovigerous females of Euryrhynchus amazoniensis were collected only in Lake