No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

While copepods are important prey for many wild marine fish larvae and are preferred as a live feed for culturing larval fish, their low productivity and the costs associated with culturing them typically limit their use as a live food source in all but experimental situations. In a series of experiments with four readily and commercially available microalgae (Thalassiosira weissflogii Grunow, Rhodomonas salina Wislouch, Tetraselmis suecica Kylin Butch, and Isochrysis galbana Parke), we determine which of them, when exclusively fed to a commonly occurring copepod, Oithona oculata, over a 15-day period, results in the greatest copepod survival and egg production rates. We posit that species of Oithona might be an ideal candidate for copepod taxa for commercial-scale copepod culture and that the microalga Rhodomonas salina is an ideal food source to culture them.

No abstract