Effect of cultivation methods on nutritional enrichment of euryhaline rotifer Brachionus plicatilis

This study aimed at comparing fatty acid contents of rotifers cultured with different methods after nutritional enrichment in order to evaluate the rotifer quality produced by these methods. Rotifers were cultured using either a batch or a continuous culture. From the batch culture, three experimental subpopulations were used, sampled from the culture at 1, 24, and 48 h after rotifer inoculation. The continuous culture was performed with two tanks; one was for cultivation with continuous feeding and water supply (cultivation tank), and another was for harvesting from the cultivation tank by overflow (harvest tank). From the continuous culture, two subpopulations were used: one from the cultivation and one from the harvest tank. Nutritional enrichment was performed after each culture. Each population was enriched with Nannochloropsis oculata or a commercial enrichment diet. When the enrichment was performed with N. oculata on populations at 24 h after inoculation originating from either of the two tanks of continuous culture or the batch culture tank, a higher quantity of arachidonic acid (ARA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) was obtained from the two tanks of continuous culture. The same results were obtained when enrichment diet was used, this time including docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).