Feeding of juvenile white shrimp Penaeus setiferus. periodic or continuous?

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Abstract
Juvenile white shrimp Penaeus setiferus were collected every 3 h during two 48 h sampling periods (August 20 to 22 and September 14 to 16, 1985), in the tidal creeks and surrounding marsh areas of North Inlet, South Carolina, USA. Weight of gut contents material relative to shrimp body weight was measured to determine if gut fullness remained constant through time or if variations were correlated with changes in light and tidal levels. All foreguts of the shrimp sampled always contained food and no strong temporal, tidal, or light trends in fullness were evident. It is not known whether this indicated continuous feeding by the shrimp or merely reflects changes in their gut clearance rates. A maximum in gut fullness at sunrise during both 48 h periods may have resulted from increased feeding rates at that time. Although shrimp captured in September were on average larger (50.4 vs 41.6 mm carapace length), they had approximately the same mass of food in the guts per unit body weight as those collected in August.