Intensive cultivation of the calanoid copepod Gladioferens imparipes

In aquaculture, inclusion of copepod nauplii in the diet of larval fish may increase the number of fish species that can be successfully reared. Pelag ic nauplii of calanoid copepods are snore available as food items for most marine fish larvae than the predominantly epibenthic nauplii of harpacticoi d copepods. however, sustained and substantial production of calanoid copep od nauplii is difficult. Intensive copepod cultures allow reliable and sust ained production while utilising less space than extensive culture systems. Three intensive culture techniques for the temperate water estuarine calan oid copepod Gladioferens imparipes are described. These techniques comprise 60- and 500-1 batch cultures and 1000-1 send-continuous cultures. Five hun dred-litre cultures are part of a recirculating system that features automa ted nauplius collection and water treatment. Standardised nauplius producti on, expressed as number of nauplii produced per litre of culture vessel per day, is given for each technique. 878 +/- 46 nauplii/l culture vessel/day was achieved over 420 days for G. imparipes cultured in 500-1 vessels. Stan dardised nauplius production is compared with published data from other cop epod culture systems. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BY. All rights reserved.