Yeast and Corn Flour Supplement to Enhance Large-scale Culture Efficiency of Marine Copepod Tisbe furcata, a Potential Live Food for Fish Larvae

Copepods can generally provide balanced nutrition for first-feeding of fish larvae, and Tisbe furcata is recognized as a potential larval diet for aquaculture. In this study we examined the effects of feed composition and water quality on the population density of T. furcata over 20 days in large-scale culture. Results showed that the population density of T. furcata increased when fed a diet supplemented with yeast and corn flour (P< 0.05) and reached a greater mass compared to three other diet compositions. During culture, nitrite and phosphate concentrations in the water were positively correlated with the population density of T. furcata. The concentration levels of nitrate and ammonia nitrogen were low, and did not reveal any negative effects on the growth of T. furcata. We found that the feed formula that contained yeast and corn flour in given quantities did affect the quality of water, even in high culture densities. Yeast and corn flour could constitute promising candidates for feed supplements for T. furcata, or other copepod species in the future.