Authors: K.O Ademolu,O.A Jayeola, G.A Dedeke, A.B Idowu
Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management Vol. 4 No.2 2011
Abstract
This study was conducted to compare the growth performance and haemolymph metabolites concentrations of two snail ecotypes-normal skin and albino snail raised in captivity for eight weeks.
The growth performance was measured by body weight gain, shell length gain and shell circumference gain while the measured haemolymph metabolites were glucose, protein, lipids, Na+, K+ ,Ca2+, Cl- and PO42-. Normal snail recorded better growth performance and growth rate (3.432x) than albino snails (2.166x). Similarly significantly higher (P 0.05) was recorded in the concentrations of minerals of the two snails species haemolymph. The domestication of the two snail ecotypes is thus recommended for heliculturist.