Morphometric prediction of cannibalism in larviculture of orange-spotted grouper, Epinephelus coioides

This study developed a linear regression model to predict the occurrence of cannibalism in larviculture of orange-spotted grouper, Epinephelus coioides. Based on measurements of mouth width (MW), body depth (BD), and total length (TL), a model of prey length (mm) to cannibal length was constructed: TLprey = 0.80 TLcannibal - 1.50. According to the equation, we suggest that 30% is a threshold for TL differences to use in grading grouper try, and that beyond the threshold, potential cannibals should be removed. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.