Evaluation of the suitability of the parthenogenetic marbled crayfish for aquaculture: potential benefits versus conserv
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REVIEW PAPER
Evaluation of the suitability of the parthenogenetic marbled crayfish for aquaculture: potential benefits versus conservation concerns Gu¨nter Vogt
Received: 9 June 2020 / Revised: 6 August 2020 / Accepted: 23 August 2020 Ó Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The parthenogenetic marbled crayfish, Procambarus virginalis, is currently being discussed as a promising new candidate for aquaculture that could supply people in developing countries with high-quality protein and income. The main advantage of marbled crayfish is parthenogenetic reproduction. Comparison of growth between marbled crayfish and red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, the leading species in crayfish aquaculture revealed inferior body size and considerably slower growth in marbled crayfish. Only a very small proportion of the production would meet the size requirement of the international market and could serve as a cash crop. Aquaculture for local markets in extensive outdoor systems is probably economically feasible in developing countries, but the highly invasive and competitive marbled crayfish could easily escape from such sites, invade natural ecosystems and impair the autochthonous fauna and flora. Culture in closed indoor systems would be a safe alternative but this cost-intensive approach is economically not profitable. Because of small body size and slow growth, conservation concerns, and economic reasons, the marbled crayfish is considered unsuitable for
Handling editor: Lee B. Kats G. Vogt (&) Faculty of Biosciences, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 234, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
aquaculture. It should not be spread around the globe for aquaculture and sustainable fisheries as was earlier done with the congeneric Procambarus clarkii, resulting in devastating ecological effects in numerous countries. Keywords Marbled crayfish Aquaculture Conservation Growth Procambarus clarkii
Introduction The marbled crayfish or Marmorkrebs, Procambarus virginalis Lyko, 2017, is the only obligately parthenogenetic freshwater crayfish and decapod crustacean (Scholtz et al., 2003). This unique property appears to make this species particularly suitable for aquaculture. Marbled crayfish was detected in 1995 in the German aquarium trade. It is a triploid descendant of the sexually reproducing slough crayfish, Procambarus fallax (Hagen, 1870), that occurs in Florida and southern Georgia (Martin et al., 2010). Marbled crayfish has neither been found in the native range of its parent species nor in historical museum collections giving rise to the hypothesis that it is an evolutionarily young species that even might have originated in captivity (Vogt et al., 2015; Vogt, 2019). Marbled crayfish is kept by aquarists and research laboratories worldwide. It has frequently been used as
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Hydrobiologia
a laboratory model for several disciplines including development, neurobiology, toxicology, and epigenetics (reviewed in Vogt 2008, 2018b,
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