| Seahorse aquaculture has been getting more and more interests throughout the world, especially insome tropical countries. In China, the mass culture of seahorses in outdoor or indoor cement ponds was the commonmode while concerning the culture cost for seahorses. In the present study, the variation of physicochemical factorsand bacteria in the culture water under different stocking densities of lined seahorses Hippocampus erectus wereinvestigated. The results showed that the concentration of PO43--P, NO3--N, NO2--N and NH4+-N, as well as thenumber of total bacterial, heterotrophic bacteria and Vibrio increased with culture days. Both the concentration ofions and bacterial number peaked at 9 d or 12 d, and then decreased significantly after the water exchange. One-Way ANOVA analysis demonstrated that the concentration of these ions increased with the increments of stockingdensities of seahorses. In addition, a correlation analysis between the concentration of ions and the number ofbacteria were performed and results showed that the concentrations of PO43--P and NO3--N were negatively correlatedwith heterotrophic bacteria, and NO2 --N and NH4 +-N were positively correlated with the number of total bacterial, heterotrophic bacteria and Vibrio. These findings will benefit the mass culture of seahorse inChina. |
