Journal of Environmental Biology

The effect of different feeds on the growth, survival and reproduction of rotifer, Brachionus plicatilis

N.W. Rasdi^1,2*, Mhd. Ikhwannuddin³, N. Azani³, A. Ramlee⁴, A. Yuslan¹, H. Suhaimi¹, U. Ashaari¹ and A. Arshad^5,6  

¹Faculty of Fisheries and Food Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu,? Kuala Nerus, 21300, Malaysia

²Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus, 21300, Malaysia

³Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus, 21300, Malaysia

⁴Faculty of Science and Marine Environment, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus,? 21300, Malaysia

⁵Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400, Malaysia

⁶International Institute of Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Negeri Sembilan, 71050, Malaysia

*Corresponding Author Email : nadiah.rasdi@umt.edu.my

Paper received: 18.01.2020 ?????? ???????????????????????????????????????Revised received: 09.04.2020 ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????Accepted: 14.08.2020

Abstract

Aim: This study compared the effects of four types of feed, namely yeast, palm kernel cake (PKC), chicken manure (CM), and Nannochloropsis oculata on the growth, survival and reproductive performance (offspring production, life span, pre-oviposition, oviposition, post-oviposition, egg produced per female and production time of egg) of rotifer Brachionus plicatilis.

Methodology : Microalgae were used as the control diet and they were compared to CM, PKC, yeast and N. oculata at different concentration of 0.004 gl^-1, 0.008 g l^-1 and 0.012 gl^-1 respectively. Feeding treatments were assessed in triplicate and experiments were performed for 30 days. The growth, survival and reproductive performance (e.g. offspring production) of B. plicatilis were evaluated to assess its response to different feed types at different concentrations.

Results : The population growth and the survival of rotifers were significantly affected (P > 0.05) when fed with diets of different concentrations. The highest population growth of 795.67 individual ml^-1 and survival rate of 399.01 individual ml^-1 were recorded with the CM and yeast at a concentration of 0.012 gl^-1. The reproductive performance (offspring production) of rotifers depended on the type of food. The rotifers recorded higher offspring production (1.52 eggs/ female/day) when fed with 0.012 gl^-1 of Nannochloropsis sp.

Interpretation : The result indicates that different types of feed at varying concentrations are an effective strategy to replace the common food used for rotifer culture.

Key words : Brachionus plicatilis, growth performance, Reproductive performance, Rotifers

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