Respiration, Excretion and Oxygen: Nitrogen Ratio of the Phyllosomes of the Red Spiny Lobster Panulirus interruptus

This work presents data on daytime and nightime oxygen consumption and ammonia excretion in phyllosoma I and II of the red lobster Panulirus interruptus reared in the lab at 21 degree C and fed with enriched Artemia nauplii. During starvation, the oxygen consumption by larvae phyllosoma dropped from 5.29 in the first hour to 3.54 mg O2 g-1h-1 after 14 h. The postabsorptive state was achieved after 13.5 h of starvation. Oxygen consumption in the daytime was significantly higher than in the nightime in both larval stages. The levels of oxygen consumption (mg O2 g-1h-1) during daytime and nightime were: 4.28 and 3.66 in phyllosoma I and; 3.8 and 3.17 in phyllosoma II, respectively. There were no significant daytime/nightime differences of ammonia excretion: phyllosoma I excreted 0.011 to 0.095 mg NH4 g-1h-1; phyllosoma II excreted 0 to 0.65 mg NH4 g-1h-1. Oxygen consumption and ammonia excretion were significantly higher in phyllosoma I than in phyllosoma II. There were no significant differences between daytime and nightime The Oxygen-Nitrogen ratios of 59.1 to 422.4 obtained in both stages suggest a catabolism ranging from utilization of equal values of proteins and lipids to utilization of lipids and carbohydrates.