New feeding protocol for enhancing mass culture of the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis (Muller, 1786)

<p>Hesham R A Mola, Mahmouud H Hegab and Mostafa S Abdel Hamid</p>

New feeding protocol for enhancing mass culture of the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis (Muller, 1786)

Hesham R A Mola, Mahmouud H Hegab and Mostafa S Abdel Hamid

National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Egypt

: J Mar Biol Oceanogr

Abstract

The effect of two different carbon sources (sugar and molasses) on Brachionus plicatilis culture was carried out. In the lab, B. plicatilis was enriched with six artificial treatments formed from yeast with sucrose sugar and yeast with molasses in different concentrations. The first treatment (T1= 30% yeast:70% sugar) was the selected treatment, where B. plicatilis reached the highest density of 370 org/mL on the 12th day. So, B. plicatilis was cultured in large scale under this treatment with similar environmental conditions and at 12th day, B. plicatilis was harvested; it gave 600 and 32.2 gram/2500 L for wet and dry weight, respectively. The study concludes that the best treatment for B. plicatilis culture is to enrich the culture with artificial diet (30% yeast:70% sugar) and the best day to harvest B. plicatilis culture is 12th day. The cultured species B. plicatilis recorded high protein percent (51.66%) in addition to high content of essential amino and fatty acids.