Features of the biology of the stone shrimp Palaemon elegans Rathke, 1837 (Caridea: Palaemonidae) from the South-Eastern Baltic off the coast of the Curonian Spit in 2010-2022

Palaemon elegans is a species of shrimp inhabiting the waters of the South-Eastern Baltic since the 1990s. Shrimp is a benthophagus-polyphage, including detritophagus and necrophage. It plays an important role in trophic chains, and is also used as an object of commercial fishing and amateur fishing. Eurythermal and euryhaline species, capable of withstanding temperature increase up to 22 °C in the Baltic, and salinity fluctuations from 1 to 12%. In the course of the research, it has been found that in the period 2010–2022 in samples from the coastal part of the Baltic Sea off the coast of the Curonian Spit, the sex ratio more often approached equal, the body length of the shrimp was 9.8–50.0 mm (the length of the carapace was 3.1–11.6 mm). The weight structure of males was quite stable, the weight of females in different years of the research varied greatly in accordance with their size. Spawning lasted from June to August, during this period many females managed to mature and spawn at least twice. Fertility reached 1500 eggs, the size of newly laid eggs was 0.45–0.58 mm x 0.55–0.60 mm (large diameter x small diameter). A comparison of a number of biometric characteristics (total body length, carapace length, body weight), reproductive characteristics in P. elegans from the coastal part of the South-Eastern Baltic near the Curonian Spit and from other settlements in the South-Eastern Baltic, including in the Kaliningrad Bay, showed sufficient similarity of data. 

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