Current status and bottle neck of octopod aquaculture: the case of American species

Abstract

The increasing market demand for cephalopods and the experiences obtained with different species has boosted the interest in developing their culture in Latin America. In 2008, an international workshop was held in Puerto Montt, Chile, with 14 experts in experimental cephalopods aquaculture from Brazil, Chile, Spain and Mexico. Several topics were approach within the holobenthic species Octopus maya and the merobenthic species Enteroctopus megalocyathus, Octopus vulgaris and Robsonella fontaniana. Part of the conclusions demonstrated that the two greatest difficulties for their production were survival of paralarvae for merobenthic species, and survival of early juveniles for holobenthic species. Besides, there is a need to study the endogenous and exogenous factors affecting health and nutritional status of embryos, paralarvae and juveniles. These stages, which may limit the culture, should be extensively studied in order to develop the appropriate environmental conditions and culture systems for the physiological and behavioural requirements, from egg incubation up to juveniles to reach a grow-out phase.