Effect of Microalgal Species on Nauplii Production in the Benthic Copepod Tigriopus japonicus

The survival and growth of marine benthic invertebrate larvae such as abalone depend on the nutritional value of micro algae. However, it is difficult to determine the dietary value of the many microalgal species used for food by benthic larvae. Therefore, we tested the benthic copepod, Tigriopus japonicus, which grazes microalgae on substrata in a manner similar to abalone larvae. It also has short generation time and is easy to rear which makes to be easier to examine the dietary value of each micro algal species. We measured the daily production of nauplii from gravid females of T. japonicus fed 26 microalgal species separately. Amino acid and fatty acid content of the micro algae and the copepod was also analyzed. The nauplii production of T. japonicus was the highest (10.7) when they were fed Navicula sp. (B-394) and the lowest (0.8) when they were fed Scrippsiella trochoidea. In Tetraselmis suecica the nauplii production was so high (8.2), which was not significantly different with the diatom group. We determined that Navicula sp. (B-394), Rhaphoneis sp. and T. suecica were good sources of food for T. japonicus. We suggest that a diet of with a mixture of these three micro algal species may be also good for invertebrate larvae such as abalone.