© SEAFDEC
The first juveniles produced by SEAFDEC/AQD were reared from larvae hatched on 24 September 2024 from an egg-bearing lobster sourced in Carles, Iloilo by the research team composed of Dr Shelah Mae Ursua, Dr Sayaka Ito, Dr Leobert de la Peña, Donita Gwen Gulmatico and Ryan Tigres.
“Slipper lobster juveniles are the final product of a hatchery. Once we master producing more of them, we can move on to the mass production of slipper lobster in nurseries and grow-out farms,” said SEAFDEC/AQD chief Dan Baliao, in a press release.
The slipper lobster were reared through four phyllosomal larval stages, a nisto stage and – after 42 days – finally moulted into the juveniles, 0.6 centimetres in width and 1.6 centimetres in length.
The slipper lobster was first made to hatch eggs at SEAFDEC/AQD through a Japan-funded project, in a bid to create a new aquaculture industry in the Philippines.
Locally known as “pitik-pitik” and scientifically as Thenus orientalis, slipper lobsters cost between P500 and P700 per kilogram in the Philippines, and are considered as a substitute for the more famous spiny lobster, which cost upwards of P1,500 per kilogram.
