M. Ignatow et al., SECONDARY PRODUCTION AND ENERGETICS OF THE SHRIMP CARIDINA-NILOTICA IN LAKE VICTORIA, EAST-AFRICA - MODEL DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION, Hydrobiologia, 332(3), 1996, pp. 175-181
Measurements of body mass, carbon content, respiration, growth, and eg
estion are combined in a model of secondary production by the tropical
freshwater shrimp Caridina. The model is developed to permit its dire
ct application to empirical data for abundances and size frequency dis
tributions of field populations. Model calculations combined with popu
lation data for offshore Lake Victoria over a period of two years indi
cate that Caridina consume the equivalent of 2.2% of annual lake prima
ry production. Present net annual secondary production by the shrimp i
s an order of magnitude greater than the present fishery yield of the
lake. Detritus-fed experimental organisms evidently had assimilation e
fficiencies as low as 10% by model calculation.