Institute of Marine Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Ferry Road, Portsmouth, United Kingdom.
National Museum Cardiff, Cathays Park, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2018 Jun 28;13(6):e0199516. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199516. eCollection 2018.
Several million gastropods are collected each year for the marine ornamental trade to graze on algae detrimental to aquarium species, however, little is known about popular species' suitability to perform this clean-up crew role. Three commonly traded gastropods, Turbo bruneus, Tectus fenestratus, and Tegula eiseni were assessed on their performance. Their survival was quantified as was their movement, and positioning with respect to water level and growth rates were calculated from the start and end weights. Nitrocellulose-coated slides were impregnated with an algal extract and the amount of grazing by each species was also compared. After 53 days final mortality levels of species were significantly different with all T. bruneus individuals surviving, whilst all T. fenestratus individuals apart from two and 35% of the T. eiseni had died by the end of the experiment. T. bruneus grazed significantly more than individuals of T. eiseni, and T. fenestratus. Both T. bruneus and T. eiseni were heavier after one month with T. bruneus gaining significantly more weight than T. eiseni. Greater percentages of algae were grazed by T. bruneus of increasing weight, although this relationship was not found for T. eiseni and T. fenestratus. All three species were generally active and remained within the water for the vast majority of time, although a small, but significant amount of time was spent out of the water for T. eiseni. T. fenestratus were significantly less active than T. bruneus, although the mean activity of T. eiseni was not significantly different from either species. T. bruneus out performs the other two species as a cleaning organism especially in the context of fluctuating water quality, thus highlighting the varying suitability of organisms for this task. Preference in the ornamental trade should be given to T. bruneus over the other topshells, but accurate species identification is critical.
每年有数百万的腹足动物被收集用于海洋观赏贸易，以啃食对水族馆物种有害的藻类，但人们对流行物种是否适合扮演这个清洁角色知之甚少。我们评估了三种常见的贸易腹足动物，即褐云玛瑙螺、窗贝和铁锚海兔，它们的生存能力、运动能力以及相对于水位的位置和增长率都是从开始和结束的体重计算得出的。硝化纤维素涂层的幻灯片被藻类提取物浸渍，每种物种的摄食量也进行了比较。53 天后，褐云玛瑙螺的死亡率显著低于其他两种物种，所有个体都存活下来，而除了两个个体外，所有的窗贝和 35%的铁锚海兔都在实验结束时死亡。褐云玛瑙螺的摄食量明显高于铁锚海兔和窗贝。一个月后，褐云玛瑙螺和铁锚海兔的体重都增加了，褐云玛瑙螺的体重增加明显多于铁锚海兔。随着体重的增加，褐云玛瑙螺摄食的藻类比例越大，尽管这种关系在铁锚海兔和窗贝中没有发现。这三种物种通常都很活跃，在水中的时间占绝大多数，尽管铁锚海兔有一小部分时间不在水中。窗贝的活跃度明显低于褐云玛瑙螺，尽管铁锚海兔的平均活跃度与其他两种物种没有显著差异。褐云玛瑙螺作为一种清洁生物的表现优于其他两种物种，特别是在水质波动的情况下，因此强调了不同物种在这项任务中的不同适用性。在观赏贸易中，应该优先选择褐云玛瑙螺而不是其他的宝贝螺，但准确的物种鉴定是关键。
