Lucny Jean, Sophomore, Lake Wales High School, Florida Shawn Coyle, Co-Investigator, Aquaculture r. James H. Tidwell, Professor and Division Chair, Division of Aquaculture

The African River prawn (Macrobrachium vollenhovenii) is native to western African countries including Senegal and Cameroon and has potential as an aquaculture species due to its large size. The effect of ammonia on larvae was evaluated to provide basic information on safe levels for larviculture. A 96 h static assay was performed on 1-day-old M. vollenhovenii larvae. The nominal concentrations tested ranged from 2 to 16 mg NH4/L. Water temperature was maintained at 26circC by use of a single water bath and a submersible heater. The salinity of the test water was 16 ppt. The 96 h LC50 value was calculated to be 7.4 mg/L and the ‘safe level’ was estimated to be 0.74 mg/L. These results suggest that M. vollenhovenii exhibits a lower tolerance to ammonia when compared to other species of freshwater prawn.

The African River prawn (Macrobrachium vollenhovenii) is native to western African countries, including Senegal and Cameroon, and has potential as an aquaculture species due to its large size. In Africa, it is a commercially important species especially in the country of Cameroon where an active fishery exists.

Ammonia is the main excretory product in crustaceans (Cavelli et al. 2000). This is an end product of amino acid catabolism originated from excretion and organic matter