In the experimental mariculture of Patagonian red octopus, Enteroctopus megalocyathus, paralarvae rearing showed the highest mortalities. Part of this mortality has been attributed to cannibalism, so we studied the joint effect of paralarvae density and prey availability upon cannibalism in the first 2 weeks after hatching. Three culture densities (1, 5, and 10 paralarvae/L) and three prey availabilities (0, 5, and 10 prey day⁻¹ paralarvae⁻¹) were tested. Two experiments were carried out in early paralarvae: one experiment where the prey consisted of artemia 5 mm in size (Experiment 1) and other experiment where the artemia size was 1 mm (Experiment 2). Results showed, in both experiments, that survival and cannibalism during the first 2 weeks after hatching were independent of the paralarvae density and the prey availability. In experiment 1, with artemia 5 mm in size, the mortality attributed to cannibalism decreased when the prey availability was increased, nor was there any effect of the paralarvae density on cannibalism. In experiment 2, with artemia 1 mm in size, the mortality attributed to cannibalism was independent of both factors. So, the cannibalism in early paralarvae could be reduced by increasing the availability of prey if the prey is of an appropriate size.

中文翻译：

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在受控环境中生长的巴塔哥尼亚红章鱼早期章鱼旁食人鱼的特征（古尔德，1852年）

在巴塔哥尼亚红章鱼的实验海水养殖中，巨型章鱼肠球菌的死亡率最高。这种死亡率的一部分归因于食人主义，因此我们研究了孵化后的前两周，幼虫密度和猎物可获得性对食人族的联合影响。三种养殖密度（1、5和10个幼虫/ L）和三个猎物可利用度（0、5和10个猎物日^-1副寄生^-1）进行了测试。在早期的幼虫中进行了两项实验：一项实验是猎物由大小为5毫米的卤虫组成（实验1），另一项实验是卤虫的大小为1毫米（实验2）。结果表明，在两个实验中，孵化后的前两周的存活率和食人性均与幼虫的密度和猎物的可利用性无关。在实验1中，有5毫米大小的卤虫，当猎物的可利用性增加时，由于食人性引起的死亡率降低，并且寄生虫密度对食人性也没有任何影响。在实验2中，卤虫大小为1毫米，归因于自相残杀的死亡率与这两个因素均无关。因此，如果猎物的大小合适，可以通过增加猎物的可利用性来减少早期幼虫的食人行为。