Cj. Mason et al., GROWTH-CHARACTERISTICS OF SYDNEY ROCK OYSTERS SACCOSTREA-COMMERCIALISIN RELATION TO SIZE AND TEMPERATURE, Journal of experimental marine biology and ecology, 227(2), 1998, pp. 155-168
Sydney rock oyster Saccostrea commercialis spat obtained from a single
spawning of four females and two males were allocated to six size cla
sses six months after spawning. The spat from each size class were dis
tributed among twelve treatments, which differed in length of time the
spat spent in poor growing conditions, followed by good conditions, o
r conversely, in good growing conditions followed by poor conditions.
A two-phase von Bertalanffy model and a regression model relating rela
tive growth rate to size and water temperature gave similar fits to th
e results. The monthly growth rate of spat kept in good conditions dep
ended on water temperature (reflected in the phases of the two-phase g
rowth model) and size at the start of the month. It is concluded that
because of the nature of oyster growth, comparison of growth rates of
oysters of different sizes may be misleading. (C) 1998 Published by El
sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.