Culture of the freshwater rotifer, Brachionus calyciflorus, and its application in fish larviculture technology

The bottle neck of most inland freshwater aquaculturists is in obtaining adequate number of fingerlings, due to their high mortality at early life stages. Their successful production is hindered by many factors including adequate supply of food at early larval stages which require live food in good quality and quantity. This paper attempts to review the principles and procedures involved in the culture of the freshwater rotifer, Brachionus calyciflorus as starter food for most freshwater fish fry. There are several strains of different sizes of this rotifer, thus making them suitable for fry of a variety of sizes. This rotifer can be isolated, continuously produced by batch culture and ‘feed back’ culture systems. It can be fortified with diets containing highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) for high survival and overall high growth and performance in several fish species including endangered and some problematic species. In spite of attempts to replace rotifer with more accessible formulated diets they will probably maintain their role as food organism for fish larvae of various species.