Experiment on survival and developmental time of the crab Hemigrapsus takanoi larvae from Kiel Fjord in 8 salinity levels

Ovigerous females were collected by scraping from inner Kiel Fjord in July -August 2017 and kept under control constant temperature room (~20°C) until egg hatching. Newly hatched larvae were reared under different salinity treatments in order to estimate their salinity tolerance,. Experiments were conducted until larvae reached the megalopae stage (last larval stage) or died, The results of such study could give us a primary outlook on the dispersal ability of H. takanoi larvae along the Baltic Sea, and insights about the life cycle of H. takanoi specifically in the south-western Baltic.