Interspecific relationship between two food organisms in the combination culture tank of rotifer, Brachionus rotundiformis and copepod, Tigriopus japonicus

The common harpacticoida copepod species Tigriopus japnnicus was often obseued in the mass culture of marine rotifer tanks of sea farming stations. In this study, we investigated the co-existing effect of T. iaponicus to the rotifer Brachionus rotundiformis population growth. The culture conditions as temperature, salinity, culture volume, photo period, culture period and observation interval were 25{\circ}C, 22ppt, 40ml, 12L:12D, 16 deys$ and every two days during the experimental period, respectively. Nannochloropsis oculata was used as the food for the two testing organisms. After counting the growth of rotifer and copepod, they were transferred to new culture tank with N. oculata at the density of . The population growth of B. rotundiformis was suppressed by T. japonicus when these two organisms were mix-cultured comparing to single culture of B. rotundiformis. But population growth of T, japomcus was not affected by the presence of B. rotundiformis. The interspecific relationships of prey-predation and food competition were not observed in the combination culture of rotifer B. rotundiformis and copepod T japonicus.