Marine Harpacticoid copepod amphiascoides neglectus as live feed for aquarium corals :|bprotopalyhtoa sp. and acropora sp. and freshwater fish larvae denio rerio under laboratory conditions

Abstract

Copepods has increasingly becoming a live feed in aquaculture industries. This present study is to validate the potential of harpacticoid, Amphiascoides neglectus as a live feed for aquarium corals and freshwater zebrafish larvae (Denio rerio) in captivity. A challenging area in the field of coral culture and larval rearing is their diets. In addition, the cultured corals may have different feeding behaviour compared to wild corals. To solve this problem, we carried out the test feeding experiment of two common species of aquarium corals (Protopalythoa sp. and Acropora sp.) and onto 5 day after hatched (DAH) zebrafish larvae. The A. neglectus were cultured under laboratory condition and able to supply nauplii for every 21 days and on day 14 culture, was the maximum yield of nauplii density. The coral samples were fed at two feeding time, morning and evening with two different feeding types, cultured A.neglectus and wild copepod. The results showed that there is no significant difference in ingestion rate of the corals at different feeding times (p=0.260). The growth of the corals fed different type of copepod also showed no significant difference (p=0.794). The test feeding experiment on zebrafish larvae were served with A. neglectus, Artemia, and mixed diets. On 15 DAH showed that there is significant difference in terms of growth and survival of the larvae fed A. neglectus p=0.045 and p=0.033). This study concluded that the A. neglectus have a potential to be used as a live feed for aquarium corals and freshwater zebrafish larvae. The A.neglectus could be cultured in laboratory under controlled conditions and successfully produced nauplii as a diet for cultured organisms. This result would improve the knowledge about the advantages of using marine copepod as a live feed.