Prey Concentrations and Feeding Response in Laboratory‐Reared Stage‐One Zoeae of King Crab, Snow Crab, and Pink Shrimp

Abstract The objective of this study was to determine prey population densities necessary to elicit a successful feeding response in the first zoeae of king crab, Paralithodes camtschatica, snow crab, Chionoecetes bairdi, and pink shrimp, Pandalus borealis, from Kachemak Bay, Cook Inlet, Alaska. In the laboratory, king crab zoeae consumed an average of 0.8, 1.3, 2.6, and 7.6 prey per day in 500-ml beakers in which the number of small copepods equaled 20, 40, 80, and 160 per liter, respectively. At these same prey densities, zoeae of snow crab and pink shrimp ingested an average of 0.5, 1.3, 2.2, 4.8, and 0.7, 1.5, 2.3, 5.3 prey per day, respectively. Prey densities had to equal 80 per liter before zoeae of all three species were able to consistently capture at least one prey item successfully each day. Prey densities of this magnitude are considerably higher than those determined by oblique net tows in the study area, Kachemak Bay, Alaska.