Roles of copepods in larviculture

Abstract

Free-living copepods play an important role by serving as natural food and as intermediate trophic relationships between the primary producer and consumer in aquatic ecosystem. Copepods from the genus, e.g., Apocyclops, Acartia, Tigriopus, Pseudodiaptomus and Oithona are cultured and applied as live feeds for the larviculture of important Asian aquaculture species such as grouper, sea bass, clown fi sh, seahorse, damsel, black tiger prawn and mud crab. The small copepod nuaplii are easily ingested and digested by the larvae making them an ideal larvi-feed. The good nutritional pro fi les, e.g., highly unsaturated fatty acids and proteins, of copepods have great signi fi cance as well to their roles as live feeds which are essential for the growth and survival of reared larvae in hatcheries.