Culture Techniques of Marine Copepods

• Main Authors: Santhosh, B, Anil, M K, Muhammed Anzeer, F, Aneesh, K S, Abraham, Mijo V, Gopakumar, G, George, Rani Mary, Gopalakrishnan, A, Unnikrishnan, C
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: ICAR - Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute 2018
• Subjects: CMFRI Books; Copepods; Live Feed Culture; Indian; Rotifer
• Online Access: http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/13376/; http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/13376/1/Culture%20Techniques%20of%20Marine%20Copepods_2019.pdf

In recent years, marine finfish resources have been stagnating or showing a declining trend. It is generally accepted that mariculture of suitable marine finfishes is the only option to meet the increasing demand for fish in the years to come. In this context, the availability of seed is the major issue and the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute has been intensifying its research in the recent past on the seed production of high value finfishes which are suitable for mariculture. Already technologies for commercial seed production of cobia (Rachycentron canadum) and silver pompano (Trachinotus blochii) have been standardised. One of the major hurdles for the seed production of many lucrative high value finfishes is the lack of proper technologies for mass production of suitable live feeds to initiate the first feeding of the larvae. The larvae of many species of high value food fishes are very small and the conventional live feeds employed in the hatchery such as rotifer and Artemia nauplii are not suitable to initiate the larval feeding during the critical stage mainly because of their larger size compared to the mouth size of the concerned fish larvae and also their poor nutritional value especially the fatty acid profile. Copepods are the best live feed due to their small sized nauplii and better fatty acid composition especially the DHA, EPA and ARA combination. But the major bottleneck for employing copepods as live feed is the lack of technologies for their mass culture in hatcheries. Even at a global level, this is a vital issue and even though some technologies were developed, research efforts are now being intensified in this area. In India, not much effort was taken to solve this problem till very recently. In the last few years, the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute has been focusing on this aspect and has come out with technologies for mass production of nine species of copepods. These technologies were successfully applied to seed production of the orange spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides), the Indian pompano (Trachinotus mookalee) and the pink ear emperor (Lethrinus lentjan). I congratulate Dr. B. Santhosh and his team for developing this unique technology for mass production of nine species of marine copepods for the first time in India. This publication titled ‘Culture techniques of Marine Copepods’ details this technology. I hope that the same will be a landmark in the near future which will pave the way for successful seed production of many more species of finfishes in mariculture.