Abstract

Queen conch’s mariculture experiments were conducted in Punta Gavilan and Chinchorro Banks, Quintana Roo, Mexico from october 1993 to march 1994. Organisms were cultured in galvanized chicken wire of 1 cm mesh size, at depths of 0.6 to 6.0 m at both sites. Water column parameters were constant during the experiment and did not have a significative influence. The environments selected were a) thalassia corresponding to high density seagrass b) thalassia-sand, an environment with a low density seagrass c) sand and d) coral, small coral heads. In Punta Gavilan the optimum growth was in ‘sand’ (3.21 " 0.26 mm/month) whereas in Chinchorro Banks was ‘coral’ with 2.3 " 0.44mm/month. The meat weight was 6.5% of total weigth in Punta Gavilan and 9.6% in Chinchorro Banks. In conclusion the mariculture activity is feasible because of high growth rate and low mortality encountered. It is necesary to carry out investigations on the microphytobenthos biomass and to relate to conch?s growth. Queen conch mariculture would be more successfull if seeded organisms have a siphonal length > 140 mm.

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