Premium
Selectivity of the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis fed mixtures of algal species with various cell volumes and cell densities
Author(s) -
Hotos G N
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
aquaculture research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-2109
pISSN - 1355-557X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2109.2002.00746.x
Subject(s) - rotifer , brachionus , biology , chlorella , tetraselmis , algae , botany , dunaliella , chlorophyta , brachionus calyciflorus , food science , ecology
The ability for food selectivity of rotifer Brachionus plicatilis was studied in the laboratory by feeding mixtures of microalgae with various cell volumes. Chlorella sp. (≈22 µm 3 ) was the reference algal species, and Asteromonas gracilis , (Chlorophyta) (≈2150 µm 3 ), Tetraselmis suesica (≈268 µm 3 ), Dunaliella salina (≈52 µm 3 ) and Chaetoceros sp. (≈150 µm 3 ) the experimental species. Each was mixed with Chlorella and fed in three experiments. In the first experiment, filtration and ingestion rates of rotifers each fed with algae revealed that the highest values were measured with the mixture of Chlorella + Asteromonas , and the lowest for Chlorella + Chaetoceros . In the second and the third experiments, by using several combinations of algal densities with the mixture of Chlorella + Asteromonas , a selectivity ability of the rotifers for Asteromonas was found. A hypothesis is presented that accounts for the preference of rotifers for Asteromonas , which is suggested as a new candidate species for use in live food production of fish hatcheries.