Rotifer Culture

Currently, the laboratory has a working stock of approximately 5-10 billion rotifers (Branchionus plicatilis) and has the capacity of producing up to 600 million enriched rotifers each day.

Rotifers are brackish water microorganisms used in the first-feeding of larval finfish. Rotifers are about 150-300 µm in size (right, top) and reproduce quickly through the production of an egg sac (right, bottom).


Filtration and Enrichment
Seawater and freshwater pass through a series of filtration systems including sand filters (20 µm) and cartridge filters (10 µm, 5 µm, 0.35 µm), and is irradiated using ultraviolet light (120,000 mw/sec) (below, left).

Rotifers are enriched with Algamac or T-Isochrysis for durations of 12, 18 or 24 hours based on client demand (below, insert).

 
   
 
 
   
 
  Growth
Rotifers are grown in a combination of fresh and seawater (brackish water) in large tanks (right). They are fed a daily diet of
  • baker's yeast,
  • Culture Selco ®, and
  • algae (T-Isochrysis, Nannochloropsis sp.).