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Zooplankton Culture. Dr. Craig Kasper, HCC Aquaculture Program. Last Time: What’s a LUX??.
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Zooplankton Culture Dr. Craig Kasper, HCC Aquaculture Program
Last Time: What’s a LUX?? • A unit of illumination equal to the direct illumination on a surface that is everywhere one meter from a uniform point source of one candle intensity or equal to one lumen per square meter called also meter-candle • a unit of illumination, equivalent to 0.0929 foot-candle and equal to the illumination produced by luminous flux of one lumen falling perpendicularly on a surface one meter square. Symbol: lx
Introduction • Zooplankton is required as a first food for many cultured fish; for others it contributes to faster growth and higher survival. Since larval fish don’t take up much space, 0.1-3 acre ponds will do nicely, if you are outdoors. Indoor fry culture can be done in 250-1000 gallon tanks in a recirculation system. • Tiny fry eat tiny prey, but are preyed upon by many creatures bigger than they are. • Stock the right size fry and feed the right size zooplankton! Yes, some zooplankton would try to eat your fry.
First Feeding on Zooplankton • Most fish fry eat three main types of zooplankton—rotifers, copepods and cladocerans. • For the tiniest fish fry, HSB or WB, small rotifers may be the only zooplankton small enough to eat. • If fry are too large, then they rotifers may not provide enough nutrition. • Copepod nauplii, which arejust-hatched copepods, are important first foods for larval fish, too.
Rotifers • Rotifer (0.04 -2.5 mm long). Sim. to microalgae. • “Wheel organ” a ring of cilia that “rotates” around the mouth • Appear early, hatch from “resting eggs” in the pond reproduced rapidly (2-8 days post hatch). • Asexual reproduction: need good conditions • Sexual reproduction: poor pond conditions (“resting” eggs produced)
Rotifers Hexarthra, note the egg attached to this female Floscularia,tube building rotifer, attaches to plant stems.
Rotifer Setup • Sterilized water (whether salt or fresh) • pH and temperature should = starter culture. • Temperature is 20 - 30° C • pH 8.0 • Start with at least 10-20 rotifers/ml (minimizes crashing) • 1-2 feedings per day; continuous preferable.
Counting… • Counts determine health* *Healthy cultures of rotifers contain egg bearing females and very few males. An increase in the number of male rotifers, easily identifiable by their smaller size, is an indicator of a stressed culture (bad H20 quality). female rotifer w/eggs Sedgwick-Rafter Cells with Grid
Hatching Rotifers • SW “L” Type - Brachionus plicatilis 200-360μ “S” Type - Brachionus rotundiformis 150-220μ “SS” Type - Brachionus rotundiformis 70-160 μ FW Brachionus rubens, Brachionus calciflorus • Temperature: 30°C • pH: 7.2-9 • Feed: Nannochloropsis (algae) • Feeding Rate: 15 ml of Nanno/10 million "L" type/day • Feeding Times/Day: Continuous, or every 3 hours
Artemia nauplii “I must apply myself!!!”
Copepod Artemia nauplii • Next copepods to appear from resting eggs. • Artemia molt up to 12 times before reaching adult stages (provides an increasing food size for larval fish.) • Adults may reach 3 mm length
Hatching Requirements • Good water. • Clean clean equipment, tubing hatching contianer, etc. • pH: 8.5 • Illumination: constant bright light • Temperature: 24-28° • Aeration: needed to keep Artemia cysts circulating. • Salinity: recommended to be approximately 24-28ppt. • Density of cysts should not exceed 10 grams / liter. • Incubation Time: usually hatch out takes approximately 24 hours.
Cladocerans (Water Fleas) • Cladocerans: third major group • Larger fry and even adults eat them. • Cladocerans 2 to 3mm long are commonly found in culture ponds several weeks after the ponds are filled. • Hatch from resting eggs. • Cladocerans compete with rotifers and calanoid copepods for phytoplankton.
Daphnia magna Very large! eggs
Life History • D. magna live approx. 40 days at 25°C and about 56 days at 20°C. • Life History: (1) egg (2) juvenile (3) adolescent (4) adult (Pennak, 1978)
Culture Parameters • Salinity - 99% of Cladocerans are freshwater • Oxygen - Tolerant of low oxygen. A slow aeration is needed. Aggressive bubbles kill them (Bio-foam filters work great!) • pH - 7.2 - 8.5. • Hardness: D. magna tends to prefer harder water (170 mg carbonate hardness) and D. pulex a little less hard (90 mg carbonate hardness). • Temperature: Daphnia magna 18-22°C (64-72°F) D. pulex > 10°C. Moina 5-31°C (41-88° F); opt. 24-31°C (75-88°F). • Food: Green water, yeasts, bacteria • Other facts: <0.5 ppm P stimulates reproduction, but concentrations higher than 1.0 are lethal to the young.