Cladocerans as an Ideal Live-Food for Fish Larviculture Towards Aquaculture Sustainability
Karuppaiah Nanthini Devi
Marine Planktonology & Aquaculture Laboratory, Department of Marine Science, School of Marine Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli-24, Tamil Nadu, India.
Perumal Santhanam *
Marine Planktonology & Aquaculture Laboratory, Department of Marine Science, School of Marine Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli-24, Tamil Nadu, India.
Ayyanar Shenbaga Devi
Marine Planktonology & Aquaculture Laboratory, Department of Marine Science, School of Marine Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli-24, Tamil Nadu, India.
Narasimman Manickam
Marine Planktonology & Aquaculture Laboratory, Department of Marine Science, School of Marine Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli-24, Tamil Nadu, India.
Piliyan Raju
Marine Planktonology & Aquaculture Laboratory, Department of Marine Science, School of Marine Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli-24, Tamil Nadu, India.
Rex Peter Francis Sagaya Princy
Marine Planktonology & Aquaculture Laboratory, Department of Marine Science, School of Marine Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli-24, Tamil Nadu, India.
Karuppanan Rajagopal
Marine Planktonology & Aquaculture Laboratory, Department of Marine Science, School of Marine Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli-24, Tamil Nadu, India.
Pachiappan Perumal
Marine Planktonology & Aquaculture Laboratory, Department of Marine Science, School of Marine Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli-24, Tamil Nadu, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Aquaculture remains one of the fastest-growing food-producing sectors, challenges for the development of a sustainable and species diverse aquaculture industry is lack of suitable live feeds at the larviculture phase. At present, some live feeds are being harvested from the wild and fed to the larvae and brooders. However, unfortunately, the wild collected live feeds are forming a way to entry of pathogenic organisms, which can cause diseases to the cultivable organisms. In this context, the present review was focussed on the cladocerans, their morphology, collection, identification features and culture methods. The culture of live feeds primarily the cladocerans culture in captive condition is highly essential for country like India. However, viable technologies for the intensive production of marine cladocerans are lacking in aquaculture industry especially in India coupled with the issue of lack of brood stock facility. A comprehensive brood stock facility for marine cladocerans to take up on as commercial scale seems to be the need of hour. Therefore, the culture technology has to be developed for all the possible species of marine cladocerans and pure culture of such species could be maintained and supplied to farmers and researchers of the country for sustainable aquaculture practices.
Keywords: Cladocerans, taxonomy, feeding types, culture methods, nutritional content