FISHERIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE,MOA,TAIWAN

Belcher’s venus clams, T. belcheri, were used to develop artificial propagation techniques and juvenile cultivation strategies in this study. The results showed that T. belcheri larvae hatched after 5 hours of fertilization and metamorphosed into juveniles 8–10 days after fertilization under conditions of 28°C and 33 psu. Juveniles raised at a salinity of 33 psu were then transferred to salinity conditions of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, and 45 psu for 72 hours, and survival rates were measured. The survival rates of juveniles at less than 10 psu, 15 psu, 20 psu, 25–35 psu, 40 psu, and 45 psu were 0%, 22.2%, 98.9%, 97.8%, 95.6%, and 76.7%, respectively. Comparing between the presence and absence of base medium, no significant differences in the growth rates of juveniles were observed (p > 0.05). The mean shell lengths T. belcheri and T. literatus juveniles that were maintained in a field farm for 140 days increased from 0.39 ± 0.07 cm to 1.72 ± 0.17 cm and from 0.63 ± 0.12 cm to 1.42 ± 0.17 cm, respectively. Therefore, the growth rate of T. belcheri was faster than that of T. literatus..