A Review on Different Zooplankton Culturing Techniques and Common Problems Associated with Declining Density

Abstract

Zooplankton are primary consumers and serves as a crucial connection between primary producers and consumers in the aquatic food chain and higher consumers. Plankton is consumed by more than 75% of fish species at some point throughout their life. Supply of live feed cultures is critical to the expansion of aquaculture enterprises, particularly the larviculture sector, which generates fish and crustacean seeds for grow-out businesses. However, zooplankton is rarely farmed in high enough densities to be commercially viable on a large scale. This is owing to dynamic changes in physicochemical conditions in the culture system, which would normally result in a shift in the reproduction pathway from parthenogenetic to sexual, which creates resting eggs and reduces overall live feed output. The density of these live feed organisms can alter in response to environmental conditions such as eutrophication due to an excess of nutrients, acidification, pollution, salinity intrusion, and other factors that occur within the system. The water quality and food supply in the system have a big impact on zooplankton population dynamics, especially in a culture environment. The goal of this review is to have a better understanding of the many strategies for growing zooplankton utilizing various fertilization methods in order to maintain a constant population density. This review focusing on the density of zooplankton, the biological responses of live feed to fertilization, and common challenges that farmers face in the culture. In particular, we (i) examine the many zooplankton culture techniques that have been developed over time, (ii) explain the biological reactions of zooplankton to changes in culture conditions, and (iii) show the frequent issues as-sociated with live feed culture.