Understanding the requirements of this species to specific nutrient
components is necessary for the formulation of a compound feed for artificial culture. If the whelks prefer a certain food, undatum(Nasution and Roberts, 2004)and Dicathais orbita(Woodcock
and Benkendorff, 2008), have been studied.Morton (1986b)studied
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Animal collection and maintenance
Adults were captured from November 2009 to January 2010 based
on the breeding season of this species in South China Sea (unpublished data). A total of 50 healthy adult whelks with total shell length
(TSL) of 27.5–36.0 cm and body weight of 579–1088 g were selected
for reproduction. A simple method was used to determine the physicalfitness of the whelks: the freshly captured whelk were placed in a
seawater tank with their ventral (operculum) side upwards; generally, the earlier a whelk rolls over to crawl, the healthier is the individual. The selected adults with a male–female ratio of 1:1 were placed
in a 4.0 m× 1.5 m×1.2 m glass fiber-reinforced plastic aquarium
with 6 m
3
seawater at 21–23 °C and salinity at 31 for 15d maintenance. According to the life habits ofH. ternatanus, a layer of sand
with the thickness of 8 cm was laid on the bottom of the aquarium.
During maintenance, the seawater was continuously aerated and
half of the seawater was changed daily. The whelks were fed live
bivalves such asSinonovacula constricta, Sanguinolaria violaceaand
Meretrix meretrixonce a day (8:00 a.m.). Daily food consumption
was approximately 5% of total body weight. The residual diets were
removed timely to prevent decomposition