YANG ET AL.: CULTURE EXPERIMENTS OF LOLIGO OPALESCENS 



Growth 



Figure 8 illustrates growth data through the life 

 cycle for both experiments. At hatching, Loligo 

 opalescens has a mean mantle length of 2.7 mm, a 

 wet weight of 0.001 g, and has approximately 100 

 chromatophores on its body. In L.O. 1981, the 

 largest reared squid was a male of 113 mm ML and 

 58 g. In L.O. 1982, the largest reared squid was a 

 female of 116 mm ML and 63 g. Mean sizes for 

 adults from the two experiments were 87 mm ML 



(Sx = 2.7) and 23.8 g (Sx = 1.9) for 35 males, and 

 83 mm ML (Sx = 1.9) and 21.2 g (Sx = 1.5) for 

 58 females. 



Growth equations for the squid in L.O. 1981 clear- 

 ly describe two separate phases of growth. The man- 

 tle length of squid cultured in the CT system (days 

 1-56) increased at an exponential rate (ML = 2.121 

 e o.o2398«. r 2 _ o 92) or 2.4% increase per day, while 

 those cultured in the RW system (days 56-248) grew 

 logarithmically (ML = 0.2884 t 1A95 ; r 2 = 0.97). 

 Weights were only measured on squid from the RW 



(23) 



60 

 50 



CT 



X 40 

 O 



LU 



LU 



30 



20 



10 







L.O 1982 



(8) 



(20) 



12) 



T 



i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — | 



50 100 150 200 250 



DAYS 



"i i i i i i i i i i — i — i — r — i — i — i — i — i — i — | — i — i — n — | 



50 100 150 200 250 



L.O. 1982 



(62) 

 (18) J 



:18) 



(30) 



(30) ( 13) 



(20) 



;io> 



i 



i — i — i — i — | — n — i — i — | — i — i — i — i — | — n — i — i — | — n — i — i — | 



50 100 150 200 250 50 100 150 200 250 



DAYS 



Figure 8.— Comparison of growth (wet body weight and mantle length) in experiments L.O. 1981 and L.O. 1982. 



783 



