FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 69, NO. 2 



Table 6. — Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and ash in larval 

 samples, as percentages of total dry weight. 



(T 10- 

 o 



Age 

 (days) 



C 



(%) 



H 

 (%) 



N 



(%) 



Ash 



(%) 



in Table 6. In this paper the term level will be 

 used in the sense of Giese (1969) to denote the 

 percentage of the total dry weight which a par- 

 ticular body component constitutes. In fed lar- 

 vae, the level of ash increased from 5.1% on day 

 1 to 10.0% on day 25. The ash level was higher 

 in unfed than in fed larvae, except on days 7 

 and 16. The nitrogen level increased with age 

 in both fed and starved larvae, but the increase 

 was more steady in the latter. Fed larvae fluc- 

 tuated between 10.7 and 11.3% nitrogen from 

 day 10 to day 25. Accompanying the increase 

 in nitrogen was a decrease in the level of carbon. 

 Among 20-day-old larvae, the level of ash was 

 higher, nitrogen lower, and carbon the same or 

 slightly lower in larvae whose initial feeding had 

 been delayed for 16 days than in larvae fed 

 earlier. Nitrogen in 20-day-old larvae decreased 

 with time of first feeding, from day 7 to day 16. 

 The ratio of carbon to nitrogen has been plotted 

 in Figures 3 and 4 along with condition factors. 

 The C/N ratio is lower in starved than in fed 

 larvae after day 4 but shows a decreasing trend 

 with time even in fed larvae whose condition 

 factor is increasing (Figure 3) . On day 20, lar- 

 vae whose initial feeding had been delayed 10 

 or more days had higher C/N values than larvae 

 fed earlier; here too, decreasing condition fact- 

 ors accompanied increasing C/N values. Since 

 preservation in Formalin has been shown to 

 affect the C, H, N, and ash levels of copepods 



10 13 16 



AGE (doys) 



Figure 3. — Condition factors and carbon/nitrogen ratios 

 of fed and unfed larvae. Condition factors were calcu- 

 lated as [ (mean dry weight, mg) / (mean standard length, 

 mm)] X 10^. Closed circles = fed larvae, open circles 

 = unfed larvae. 



DAY OF INITIAL FEEDING 



Figure 4. — Condition factors and carbon/nitrogen ratios 

 of 20-day-old larvae with different times of initial feed- 

 ing. Condition factors calculated as in Figure 3. 



420 



