Continuous culture of two lancelets and production of the second filial generations in the laboratory

The lancelet is considered to be a promising laboratory model animal. To establish laboratory colonies of lancelet, we collected parental lancelets of Branchiostoma belcheri and B. japonicum (previously named as B. belcheri tsingtauense) with fully developed gonads from Xiamen Rare Marine Creature Conservation Areas (Fujian, China) on dates just before their spawning in the field in 2005. Those parental lancelets spawned spontaneously in the laboratory and produced thousands upon thousands of fertilized eggs. After carefully hatching and maintaining for almost 1 year, we successfully obtained about 500 first generation (F1) adults of B. belcheri and 3,300 of B. japonicum. Part of those F1 lancelets ripened and spontaneously spawned in 2006, and several thousands of second generation (F2) individuals of both species were produced. The young F2 lancelets are growing in good condition and some of B. japonicum initiated gonad development in December, 2006. Our experience emphasizes that cleanness of settlement substratum and sufficient food supply are important factors for long-term culture of lancelets in the laboratory.