In the present study, the high oxygen
consumption, CO2 production and respiratory quotients
at low salinity may explain why the shrimps at low
salinity had the poorest growth performance due to
energy expenditure for osmoregulation (Chen and Nan,
1994). And this is consistent with the results of Dalla
(1986) who found that a change in salinity from 37 to
10‰, P. japonicus resulted in an increase of oxygen
consumption by 2 folds.