An Enriched Environment Promotes Shelter-Seeking Behaviour and Survival of Hatchery-Produced Juvenile European Lobster (Homarus gammarus).

ABSTRACT: The high loss of newly released hatchery-reared European lobster (Homarus gammarus) juveniles for stock enhancement is believed to be the result of maladaptive anti-predator behaviour connected to deprived stimuli in the hatchery environment. Our objective was to learn if an enriched hatchery environment enhances shelter-seeking behaviour and survival. In the "naïve" treatment, the juveniles were raised in single compartments without substrate and shelter whereas juveniles in the "exposed" treatment experienced substrate, shelter and interactions with conspecifics. Three experiments with increasing complexity were conducted. Few differences in shelter-seeking behaviour were found between treatments when one naïve or one exposed juvenile were observed alone. When observing interactions betw

SUBMITTER: Aspaas S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4999228 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature