Ingestion and growth rates of Aurelia coerulea polyps fed naturally occurring copepods as food

Abstract

The ingestion rates and somatic growth of Aurelia coerulea polyps fed Artemia nauplii or Oithona davisae were estimated. The ingestion rates of polyps fed O. davisae increased with increasing prey densities, and they were not saturated in all polyp size groups. Furthermore, the ingestion rates of polyps fed O. davisae were not attained to the level of the ones fed Artemia even if the highest density of O. davisae was supplied. The specific growth rates of polyps fed Artemia were also significantly higher than the ones fed O. davisae under all prey densities. The ingestion and growth rates of polyps fed Artemia will not be realistic to apply to the polyps settled in natural seawaters given the prey densities in ambient seawaters. In this study, it is appeared that A. coerulea polyps can utilize the most dominant copepods O. davisae as a food source, and the estimated ingestion and specific growth rates will be applied to the naturally settled A. coerulea polyps in ambient seawaters.