Culture
experiments with Oithona oculata Farran, 1913 (Copepoda: Cyclopoida),
and its advantages as food for marine fish larvae
O.G.
Hernández Molejón, L. Alvarez-Lajonchčre-2003
Aquaculture, 219(4): 471-483
Abstract:
Culture
experiments were made with Oithona oculata Farran, 1913, a coastal
water copepod, at Tunas de Zaza and Santa Cruz del Sur, Cuba. A 1 1/2-year
semicontinuous experimental-scale polyculture with the rotifer Brachionus
rotundiformis (type "S") in outdoor tarpaulin 2.5-m3
tanks was established, with Nannochloropsis oculata (20×106
cells ml-1) and baker's yeast (1–2 g/106 rotifers
day-1) as food, reaching a mean density of 5 copepods ml-1
and a maximum density of 8 copepods ml-1, with a daily harvest of
25% of the total volume. A 1-year batch-culture pilot-scale system was also
established in indoor concrete 20-m3 tanks using N. oculata
(8–20×106 cells ml-1) as food, reaching a mean
density of 7 copepods ml-1 and a maximum density of 10 copepods
ml-1. Copepod monocultures maintained in polycarbonate 1000-l
outdoor tanks were fed a mixture of five species of microalgae (Chaetoceros
ceratosphorum, Tetraselmis tetrathele, Chlorella spp., Dunaliella
tertiolecta and N. oculata) at an average density of 2×106
cells ml-1. In these nonaerated cultures, final concentrations of
13 copepods ml-1 were obtained in 15-day cultures.
Recommendations for improving pelagic copepod culture are presented and
their advantages as live food for rearing marine fish larvae are analyzed.
(Empresa
Pesquera Industrial PESCASILDA, Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, e-mail of L. Alvarez-Lajonchčre:
lajonchere@yahoo.com)