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Science, Marine and Environment

IMPACT OF BLEEDING ON LOCOMOTION OF HORSESHOE CRAB Tachypleus gigas
IN RECOVERY TANK

Asyraf Mansor , Faridah Mohamad
1
1*
Faculty of Science and Marine Environment, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030
1
Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia.
*Corresponding author: mfaridah@umt.edu.my

Abstract: Horseshoe crabs have precious value especially hemolymph which is
STUDENT RESEARCH DAY 2021 study is to analyze the impact of the bleeding on the locomotion and daily activities of STUDENT RESEARCH DAY 2021
beneficial for the medical and pharmaceutical field. At this moment, there is a lack of
information regarding the impact of bleeding for T. gigas in Malaysia. The aim of this

v
the horseshoe crab, T. gigas in recovery tank. The experiment setup focused on the
locomotion of a female horseshoe crab before bleeding and after bleeding (bled) in a
recovery tank. The daily activities and locomotion patterns were observed based on the
behavior and movement of horseshoe crabs for 24 hours and the observation continued
about three days after the bleeding process occurred. Before bleeding, crawling activity

has a high duration compared with after bleeding but conversely for normal stationary
activity. For the locomotion, the horseshoe crab has good mobility before undergoing
bleeding but the horseshoe crab becomes passive after underwent bleeding. We
conclude that the bleeding process affects the locomotion and daily activities of T. gigas.

In the future, the observation should be done for 7 days after bleeding to see if the daily
activities and locomotion pattern of bled horseshoe crab tend to be normal as unbled
horseshoe crab.

Keyword: Bleeding, daily activity, locomotion, horseshoe crab, T. gigas.

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