Addition of bacteria bioencapsulated in Artemia metanauplii to a rearing system for halibut larvae

Theaim of this study was to determine whether it is possible to influence thespecies composition of the gut microflora in 70-days old halibut larvae(Hippoglossus hippoglossus L.) by addition of bacteriabioencapsulated in Artemia franciscana in two shortpulses.Two Vibrio strains, PB 1-11 and PB 6-1 were used. Twotreatments received each strain alone, a third treatment received the twobacterial strains in mixture, whereas in a control treatment no bacteria wereadded. Five fish tanks were included in each treatment. The bacteria werebioencapsulated in Artemia franciscana metanauplii duringashort-term incubation in bacterial suspensions of the specific strains, andwereadded in two pulses, on day 1 and day 10 of the experiment. Addition ofbacteriadid not increase the total number of colony-forming units (CFU) in the larvalgut. The total CFU in the water was lower in tanks added bioencapsulatedbacteria than in the control treatment (p 0.05). The addition of bioencapsulated bacteria intwo pulses within a ten days period was therefore not sufficient to influencethe species composition of the microflora of the halibut larvae.