SECONDARY PRODUCTION AND ENERGETICS OF THE SHRIMP CARIDINA-NILOTICA IN LAKE VICTORIA, EAST-AFRICA - MODEL DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION

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.