Life Sciences Commons^™

Spawning, Development, And The Duration Of Larval Life In A Deep-Sea Cold-Seep Mussel, Shawn M. Arellano, Craig M. Young

Shannon Point Marine Center Faculty Publications

We describe culturing techniques and development for the cold-seep mussel “Bathymodiolus” childressi, the only deep-sea bivalve for which development has been detailed. Spawning was induced in mature mussels by injection of 2 mmol l⁻¹ serotonin into the anterior adductor muscle. The mean egg diameter is 69.15 ± 2.36 μm (±S.D.; n = 50) and eggs are negatively buoyant. Cleavages are spiral and at 7–8 °C occur at a rate of one per 3–9 h through hatching, with free-swimming blastulae hatching by 40 h and shells beginning to develop by day 12. When temperature was raised to 12–14 °C …