The Feeding of Brachionus plicatilis (Rotifera) with Different Microalgae Species, Isochrysis galbana Parke, Tetraselmis chuii (Bucker), Rhinomonas reticulata (Lucas) Novamizo, Pavlova lutheri (Droop) Green and Chlorella vulgaris Beijerinck

Authors: SELİN SAYIN, OYA IŞIK, SEVİM POLAT

Abstract: In this study, the feeding of Brachionus plicatilis with different single cell microalgae species, Tetraselmis chuii, Isochrysis galbana, Pavlova lutheri, Chlorella vulgaris and Rhinomonas reticulata which are used widely for rotifer culture was investigated. At the first stage of the study, B. plicatilis was fed a mixture of T. chuii, C. vulgaris, I. galbana and R. reticulata the densities of which were 130x104, 650x10^4, 260x10^4 and 130x10^4 cell/ml respectively. The highest ingestion rate, namely 1643 cell/rot./min, was obtained with C. vulgaris. At the second stage, B. plicatilis was fed a the mixture of T. chuii and R. reticulata, of which the ingestion rates were found to be similar to those of the former stage. It was determined that B. plicatilis fed on both species at the same rate. At the third stage, R. reticulata, which had a low ingestion rate at the first stage, was supplied to B. plicatilis under both satiated and unsatiated conditions. It was found that the ingestion rates in these two cases were similar. At the fourth stage of the study, B. plicatilis was fed C. vulgaris which had the highest ingestion rate and P. lutheri which is one of the smallest microalgae species. At the end of the forth stage it was determined that the ingestion rates were similar. At the fifth and last stage B. plicatilis was fed with P. lutheri under both satiated and unsatiated conditions and it was found that the ingestion rate of 1150 cell/rot/min obtained for the unsatiated condition was higher than the 814 cell/rot/min obtained for the satiated condition.

Keywords: Microalgae species (Brachionus plicatilis), feeding activity

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