Comparisons of morphological characteristics and grow-out performance in new variety “Dongyou No.1”and its parental populations of small abalone Haliotis diversicolor

Small abalone Haliotis diversicolor is an economically important shellfish speices in southern China.The new variety “Dongyou No.1” was crossbred by Japan selective strain as male and Taiwan selective strain as female.Morphological characteristics and grow-out performance in “Dongyou No.1”and its parental populations of small abalone were studied recently.The results for morphological characteristics showed that parameter of W/L was significantly different among three groups.The W/L for Japan population was significantly larger than Taiwan population(P<0.05)and the value for “Dongyou No.1” was between them.These three groups were cultured in the coast of Fujian with suspended long-line cages farming model,Guangdong and Hainan with land-based intensive farming model for one year.The survival rate and shell length for three groups were calculated each three months.The results showed that Taiwan population experienced high mortality during grow-out period in the whole three areas.Japan population showed high disease-resistant ability with high survival rate.But the growth rate for Japan population was significantly slower than Taiwan population(P<0.05).“Dongyou No.1” showed excellent grow-out performance in all three areas.The results indicated that “Dongyou No.1” was the suitable new variety of small abalone for farming in the subtropical and tropical areas.