CALANOID COPEPOD RESTING EGGS CAN BE SURFACE-DISINFECTED

Resting eggs of the two calanoid copepods, Eurytemora affinis and Acar tia clausi, were exposed to the surface disinfectants Buffodine(TM), F AM-30(TM) and glutardinldehyde. Eggs were placed individually in wells of multiwell dishes and checked for hatching success and nauplii surv ival at Day 5 after hatching. To verify sterilization, eggs were incub ated individually with two different media for six weeks, allowing bac terial growth to occur. Buffodine had no significant effect on hatchin g rate and survival but indications of non-complete disinfection were found FAM-30 seemed to be harmless to Acartia eggs, but caused very lo w hatching percentages of Eurytemora eggs and nearly instaneous mortal ity of the hatched nauplii. Glutardialdehyde treatment of Acartia eggs had no significant effect on hatching rate, but all nauplii died shor tly after hatching. This disinfectant had no significant effect on hat ching of Eurytemora eggs compared with the control group, although a s mall negative tendency in hatching rare and survival could be detected . FAM-30 and glutardialdehyde were most successful in obtaining surfac e-sterile eggs. This study shows that resting eggs collected from sedi ments can survive disinfection, making them attractive as sterile inoc ulum for live feed cultures in aquaculture.