Production, disinfection and evaluation for aquaculture applications of rotifer resting eggs from Bohai Bay, P.R. of China

The dynamics of resting egg production of the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis originating from a wild population in the Tanggu Saltworks (P.R. China) was investigated. In the natural environment as well as in semi-controlled rearing conditions an increased resting egg production was noticed with declining food availability. Processed resting eggs had a hatching efficiency of 3 x 10 6 rotifers per gramme irrespective of their origin. Hatching started 22 h after the initiation of incubation and was completed after 36 h. Rotifers obtained from resting eggs could be further cultured on Culture Selco® and enriched with Super Selco®. The fatty acid profile of these rotifers were not divergent from reference rotifers (originating from the Laboratory of Aquaculture and Artemia Reference Centre) demonstrating that this strain was not catabolizing essential fatty acids and could be used for enrichment purposes. Storage of resting eggs at 4°C resulted in a 50% lower hatching after 1 year but remained stable during the next 2 years. The resting eggs used for storage could easily be disinfected without affecting their hatching characteristics. These results indicate that this material could be used as inocula for mass cultures of live food for commercial hatcheries.