The pompano Trachinotus marginatus shows good potential for aquaculture, but the success of its culture might be limited by the salinity fluctuations common in estuaries or in hyper-saline environments. The objective of this work was to establish the salinity tolerance of juvenile T. marginatus under laboratory conditions. Twelve salinities (0, 6, 8, 10, 15, 25, 45, 55, 58, 61, 65, and 75‰) plus a control (35‰) were tested in duplicate. Groups of ten fish (total length: 20.7±2,3mm and wet weight: 427±113mg) were placed in plastic tanks with 3L of water. A water bath was set to control the temperature at 24ºC, water was continuously aerated, and completely exchanged every 24h. After 96 hours, lower and upper medium lethal salinities and their respective confidence intervals (CI 95%) were estimated as 6.99‰ (CI 95% = 6.86-7.13‰), and 58.50‰ (CI 95% = 56.81-60.24‰), respectively. These results allow the characterization of this species as euryhaline. The influence of salinity on T. marginatus should be studied with more detail, with special attention to its effects on growth, in order to determine the potential for T. marginatus culture in different salinities.
fish culture; salinity; survival; Trachinotus marginatus
