Extract

More than fifty years ago, Elofson (1941) showed that it is fully possible to maintain living cultures of marine ostracods in aquaria. He concentrated particularly on determining the generation length of several species. In this study, we provide some preliminary observations on the mode of life and morphological variations of marine ostracods kept in aquaria. They derive from a water depth of 40m in the Gullmar Fjord (58°17′N and 11°29′E), west coast of Sweden. The dominant species are Krithe praetexta praetexta (Sars, 1866) and Sarsicytheridea bradii (Norman, 1865). Other species housed in the aquaria are: Jonesia acuminata (Norman, 1865), Palmoconcha guttata (Norman, 1865), Palmoconcha laevata (Norman, 1865), Cytheropteron latissimum (Norman, 1865), Pterygocythereis jonesii (Baird, 1850), Acanthocythereis dunelmensis (Norman, 1865), Robertsonites tuberculatus (Sars, 1866), Elofsonella concinna (Jones, 1857) and Argilloecia conoidea (Sars, 1923).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study was carried out at the Kristineberg Marine Research Station, west coast of Sweden, from July of 1992 to June of 1994. Sediment from a depth of 40 m in the Gullmar Fjord was sieved to remove the macrofauna and frozen, then thawed to constitute a 10–20 mm thick sediment layer in two 501 aquaria. The sediment consisted of 8 % sand (>63 μm), 44 % silt (>3.9 μm) and 49 % clay (<3.9 μm), and with a water content of 71 % ± 5% (σ = 2.4). Ostracods from the ≥250 μm sieve fraction of the dredge sample (from a depth of 40 m) were added to the aquaria. They were kept. . .