I would like to measure gut retention time in mussels. Is there a protocol for doing this that does not use isotope tracers?
http://www.entomoljournal.com/archives/2017/vol5issue3/PartJ/5-2-257-950.pdf
may be useful
I have dyed food with neutral red or some other vital dye in the lab and then allowed the animal to feed and measured the presence of the dye in the feces. Not tried it with phytoplankton and a filter feeder but maybe it would work? My paper is available at: https://stachlab.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/stachowiczhay1999b.pdf
I have used a suspension of a carmine dye to measure gut passage time (the time elapsed from feeding until the
appearance of the red marker in the feces) in salps (filter feeders). Also starch may work. See more references in Bamstedt, U. et al. (2000) Feeding. In : Harris, R. P., Wiebe, P. H., Lenz, J. et al. (eds), ICES Manual of Zooplankton Methodology. Academic Press, London, pp. 297–399.
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