Life Cycle of Chironomus riparius Meigen (Diptera: Chironomidae) and its

predation preference by Freshwater Prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii De

Man in Laboratory Conditions

Student : Elma Rahmalia

Final Pro ject (2010), Degree Program in Bio logy, School of Life Sciences and Technology-ITB,
email: elmarah malia@g mail.co m

Advisor : Prof. Tati S. Subahar

School of Life Sciences and Technology-ITB, email: tati@sith.itb.ac.id

Degree : Degree Sains (S.Si), Conferred October 2010

Abstract

The Chironomus larva are important food item for many fishes and invertebrate in nature.
Abdel-Razek et al. found that using Chironomus larvae as frozen food for the freshwater
prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, can promote and improve its growth rate and survival
under laboratory conditions. Information of life cycle and selection of Chironomus larvae by
M. rosenbergii need to know before mass rearing of the larvae as live food. The life cycle of
the Chironomus riparius was studied under laboratory conditions (at 25,88 ±0,72 o C and a
12:12 h light: dark photoperiod). Observations were made by recording the length of period
for each life stage, and the mortality that occured during each life stage. C. riparius larvae
selection by M. rosenbergii was obeserved by using 3 groups of C.riparius larvae with
different size: B(3,3±1,26 mm), C (6,64±1,64 mm) and D (11,55±1,54 mm). Single M.
rosenbergii foraged on live larvae in a 45 x 25 x 25 cm3 aquarium for periods up to 21 days.
Larvae selection per 24-h period was observed, and eaten larvae were replaced daily by fresh
larvae. The average duration of the life cycle was 26 days (23-29 days). The results showed
that the duration of egg, larva, pupa, and imago were, respectively, 1,036±0,19 days;
22,73±0,85 days; 1,38±0,49 days; and 1,96±1,3 days. The average mortality of egg, larva, and
pupa were, respectively, 0,77%; 87,66%, and 22%. Predation active time of C. riparius by
M.rosenbergii is at 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. and effective time for delivery of larvae held at 5
pm. Predation preference test results showed that Group B larval predation by M. rosenbergii
was the highest (P <0.05) in laboratory conditions. There was no significant difference in
predation of C and D group.

Key words : life cycle, Chironomus, predation preference

PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor