Preliminary and mass culture
experiments on a heterotrichous ciliate, Fabrea salina
B.D. Pandey, S.G. Yeragi-2004
Aquaculture, 232(1-4): 241-254
Abstract:
Fabrea salina is a pelagic and hypersaline ciliate having
potential to be used as live food source in commercial aquahatcheries. At
preliminary level of culture, in different volumes, three different kinds of
feeds viz. commercial yeast, Dunaliella and egg-custard were used at
different concentrations to examine their efficacy. Besides, after analyzing
the effect of salinity, temperature and light on the population growth, mass
culture experiments were conducted in up to 300 l water. Compared to yeast
and Dunaliella, the maximum population density (90 ciliates/ml) was
obtained with egg-custard used at 10 mg/l concentration, whereas with yeast
and Dunaliella, the highest density was 50 and 64 Fabrea/ml,
respectively, at the corresponding food concentration of 15 mg/l and 6×106
algal cells/ml. No significant difference in the population density was
observed (P=0.05) at varying concentrations of these three feeds.
Because of highest population density of 76 cells/ml achieved at 65 ppt
salinity and 70 cells/ml at 28 °C, the same salinity and a temperature of
28±1 °C were selected in mass culture experiments. A temperature of 36 °C
resulted in the highest population density, 92 cells/ml, showing the
generation period of about 16 h. The culture under continuous illumination
resulted in better growth (102 ciliates/ml) when compared with that in
complete darkness (76 ciliates/ml). Comparing the results of mass culture at
four different levels, i.e. 20, 50, 200, and 300 l, using egg-custard as
sole food at 10 mg/l, the maximum population growth (82 ciliates/ml) was
achieved in 200 l culture system which was provided with air–water lift
recirculatory system.
(Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Deemed
University, Versova, Mumbai 400061, India, e-mail: bamdeop@hotmail.com)