Jualaong Suthep, Thongprajukaew Karun, Ninwat Santi, Petchrit Natchapong, Khwanmaung Suwandee, Wattanakul Wattana, Tantipiriyakij Thana, Kanghae Hirun
Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, Marine and Coastal Resources Research and Development Center, Lower Gulf of Thailand, Songkhla 90100, Thailand.
Department of Applied Science, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla 90112, Thailand.
Animals (Basel). 2020 Jan 26;10(2):207. doi: 10.3390/ani10020207.
Background color has significant effects on the lifestyles of various animal species. In this study, the effects of wall background color on growth, feed utilization, specific activity of gastric and pancreatic enzymes in fecal samples, fecal thermal properties, carapace elemental profile, and hematological parameters were investigated in northern river terrapin ( Gray, 1831) in order to optimize the head-starting conditions. The terrapins (70.13 ± 0.04 g initial weight) were completely randomized into five types of colored tanks (transparent, green, red, blue, and black) and reared for twelve weeks. At the end of the experiment, tank color had no effect on survival and growth performance, but had significant effects on feeding rate, feed conversion ratio, and protein efficiency ratio ( < 0.05). Terrapins reared with black, red, or blue backgrounds had the highest feed utilization among the treatments. Among these three groups, analysis of specific activity of gastric and pancreatic enzymes in fecal samples and fecal thermal properties suggested improved digestive functionality in terrapins reared with a blue background relative to the other treatments. Carapace elemental composition and hematological parameters indicated no negative effects on health status of the terrapins reared with this optimal treatment. Findings from the current study support the head-starting program of northern river terrapins before release to natural habitats, and could also be applied in aquaria or zoos for public display.
背景颜色对各种动物物种的生活方式有显著影响。在本研究中，为了优化放归前人工养殖条件，研究了墙壁背景颜色对北方河龟（Gray，1831）生长、饲料利用率、粪便样本中胃和胰酶的比活性、粪便热特性、背甲元素谱以及血液学参数的影响。将初始体重为70.13±0.04克的河龟完全随机分配到五种颜色的养殖箱（透明、绿色、红色、蓝色和黑色）中，并饲养12周。实验结束时，养殖箱颜色对存活率和生长性能没有影响，但对摄食率、饲料转化率和蛋白质效率比有显著影响（P<0.05）。在不同处理中，饲养在黑色、红色或蓝色背景下的河龟饲料利用率最高。在这三组中，对粪便样本中胃和胰酶的比活性以及粪便热特性的分析表明，与其他处理相比，饲养在蓝色背景下的河龟消化功能有所改善。背甲元素组成和血液学参数表明，这种最佳处理方式对饲养的河龟健康状况没有负面影响。本研究结果支持北方河龟放归自然栖息地前的人工养殖计划，也可应用于水族馆或动物园的公众展示。
