Description of reproductive performance and ovarian histology of wild Farfantepenaeus paulensis from shallow waters in southern Brazil

Abstract

The present study reports on the reproductive performance of shallow water-caught Farfantepenaeus paulensis animals and relative it to ovarian histological analysis. Males and females were captured in shallow waters (5-10 m ) at the north bay of Florianopolis (Santa Catarina, Brasil) during springtime. Reproductive performance was assessed through successive apawns of unilaterally eyestalk-ablated females maintained during 50 days under controlled environmental condictions. Histological analysis of the ovaries collected just before spawning event (75, 384 + ou - 31, 526) were considered well within the range proposed for F. paulensis spawning performance. However, the egg fertilization rate (72, 4 %) was higher when compared to the egg hatching rate (13,9%) and percentage of metamorphosis to zoea I stage (13, 1%). The histological and visual analysis of avaries indicted that full development was not reached, which might be related to the poor offspring quality observed.This is the first report that F. paulensis females captured in shalloe waters were able to spawn even though full oocyte maturation was not attained.