EURYHALINE ROTIFER PROALES SIMILIS AS INITIAL LIVE FOOD FOR REARING FISH LARVAE WITH SMALL MOUTHS

摘要

The SS-type rotifer Brachionus rotundiformis is a common initial food for rearing fish larvae with small mouths, such as groupers. There are commercially important fish species, however, whose mouth size at larval stage are too small to feed SS-type rotifers. In July 2004, we collected a small (mean+-SD; body length 82.7+- 10.9 urn and body width 40.5+-6.4u.m, n=480), smooth and flexible (lorica lacking body) rotifer, identified morphologically as Proales similis, from an estuary (salinity 2ppt, temperature 27°C) in Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, Japan.