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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 717

Watanabe Takeshi, Oowa Fumito, Kitajima Chikara, Fujita Shiro, and Yone Yasuo; [Relationship between the dietary value of rotifers Brachionus plicatilis and their content of w3 highly unsaturated fatty acids]. Bull.Jap.Soc.Sci.Fisheries 45(7):883-889, 1979

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The relationship between the dietary value of rotifers, Brachionus plicatilis, and their content of w3 highly unsaturated fatty acids (w3 HUFA), the essential fatty acids for red sea bream, was investigated by feeding them marine chlorella Chlorella minutissima or freshwater chlorella Chlorella regularis for 10 min to 7 days. When marine chlorella was used as a culture medium, the quite low content of w3 HUFA in rotifers cultured with baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Y-rotifers), increased in proportion to the culture period by the incorporation of 20:5 w3 from marine chlorella, and reached a maximum at 27% in a two-day feeding. Furthermore, the dietary value of Y-rotifers for red sea bream larvae was found to be significantly improved by the secondary culture with marine chlorella for more than 6 hr. Y-rotifers cultured secondary with freshwater chlorella were high in the contents of 18:2 w6 and 18:3 w3, but low in the content of w3 HUFA and their dietary value was not much improved. These results indicate that the content of w3 HUFA in the rotifers is the principal factor in the dietary value of rotifers as a living feed and that the high mortality observed frequently in red sea bream larvae induced by feeding them Y-rotifers as their sole feed is due to an EFA deficiency in the fish.