Assessing the Viability of Commercial Media for the Mass Culture of Chaetoceros muelleri

The microalgae Chaetoceros muelleri is considered a highly nutritious feed for the cultured larvae of the tropical sea cucumber Holothuria scabra. Due to the cost of analytical grade culture media used in the production of C. muelleri, there is a need to evaluate cheap alternative commercial media to decrease the cost of producing quality live microalgal food. In this study, two different indoor batch culture systems (1 L glass bottles and 10 L plastic carboys) were used to evaluate the effectiveness of two conventional (modified F/2 and Walne’s) and one commercial (Epizyme AGP complete) microalgal culture media. Results of the 1 L glass bottle experiment showed that the peak cell density of C. muelleri in AGP (1,241 ± 116 x 104 cells ml-1) was not significantly different from the modified F/2 (1,584 ± 41 x 104 cells ml-1) and Walne’s medium (1,319 ± 162 x 104 cells ml-1) (Kruskal-Wallis test, p=0.78). Likewise, in the plastic carboy experiment, the maximum cell density of C. muelleri in Walne’s medium (750 ± 144 x 104 cells ml-1) and F/2 medium (653 ± 79 x 104 cells ml-1) were higher, but not significantly different from AGP (496 ± 184 x 104 cells ml-1) (Kruskal-Wallis test, p=0.43). The highest growth rate in the glass bottle cultures was the modified F/2 (0.38 div day-1), while AGP was the lowest (0.34 div. day-1). On the other hand, in carboy culture, AGP was higher (0.17 div.day-1) compared to modified F/2 (0.15 div. day-1) and Walne’s medium (0.13 div. day-1). The exponential growth phase was similar in the glass bottles, while in the carboy, the exponential phase was reached at a shorter time in the AGP treatment than those in the modified F/2 and Walne’s media. The findings showed that AGP medium is an adequate alternative to replace the conventional media (modified F/2 and Walne’s) during the secondary stock culture for C. muelleri. The viability of using cheaper and more readily available commercial AGP media for the indoor culture production of C. muelleri can contribute to cost-effective scaling-up of the hatchery production of quality H. scabra larvae and early juveniles.

Growth and survival of the hatchery larvae of pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas under different concentrations of microalgae and salinity in conditions of southern Primorye

Growth and survival rates for larvae of pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas (Thunberg, 1793) hatched in artificial conditions are estimated for the stages of development from D-veliger to pediveliger. The experiment was conducted in the Mariculture Center located on Popov Island (Peter the Great Bay, Japan Sea) for 2 regimes of feeding and water salinity of 26 and 32 ppt. Microalgae Isochrysis galbana, Chaetoceros muelleri and Phaeodactylum tricornutum cultivated in the Mariculture Center were used as a feed in both regimes, in different concentrations. The maximum concentration was 4-fold higher than the minimum one: daily doses of food were 20 and 5 thousand cells/mL for veligers, 40 and 10 thousand cells/mL for early veliconkhes, and 80 and 20 thousand cells/mL for late veliconkhes, respectively, whereas 80 thousand cells/mL for all larvae in transition to pediveliger stage. Statistically significant difference of the growth rate was found for cases with different food concentration (p < 0.05). The larvae with better feeding had higher growth rate under salinity of both 26 and 32 ppt. Besides, the lowered salinity (26 ppt) had some positive effect for growth in the regime of better feeding. Survival rate of the larvae from D-veliger to pediveliger was high under all regimes of the experiment and was estimated for the minimal diet as 77.4 and 64.7 % under salinity of 26 and 32 ppt, respectively, and for the maximum diet as 81.2 and 80.7 % under salinity of 26 and 32 ppt, respectively. According to the experiment results, deficit of food at early stages of the oyster larval development affects negatively on their growth but does not have significant impact on their survival.

Effect of pluronic block polymers and N-acetylcysteine culture media additives on growth rate and fatty acid composition of six marine microalgae species

The efficiency of microalgal biomass production is a determining factor for the economic competitiveness of microalgae-based industries. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and pluronic block polymers are two compounds of interest as novel culture media constituents because of their respective protective properties against oxidative stress and shear-stress-induced cell damage. Here we quantify the effect of NAC and two pluronic (F127 and F68) culture media additives upon the culture productivity of six marine microalgal species of relevance to the aquaculture industry (four diatoms-Chaetoceros calcitrans, Chaetoceros muelleri, Skeletonema costatum, and Thalassiosira pseudonana; two haptophytes-Tisochrysis lutea and Pavlova salina). Algal culture performance in response to the addition of NAC and pluronic, singly or combined, is dosage- and species-dependent. Combined NAC and pluronic F127 algal culture media additives resulted in specific growth rate increases of 38%, 16%, and 24% for C. calcitrans, C. muelleri, and P. salina, respectively. Enhanced culture productivity for strains belonging to the genus Chaetoceros was paired with an ~27% increase in stationary-phase cell density. For some of the species examined, culture media enrichments with NAC and pluronic resulted in increased omega-3-fatty acid content of the algal biomass. Larval development (i.e., growth and survival) of the Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) was not changed when fed a mixture of microalgae grown in NAC- and F127-supplemented culture medium. Based upon these results, we propose that culture media enrichment with NAC and pluronic F127 is an effective and easily adopted approach to increase algal productivity and enhance the nutritional quality of marine microalgal strains commonly cultured for live-feed applications in aquaculture. Key points • Single and combined NAC and pluronic F127 culture media supplementation significantly enhanced the productivity of Chaetoceros calcitrans and Chaetoceros muelleri cultures. • Culture media enrichments with NAC and F127 can increase omega-3-fatty acid content of algal biomass. • Microalgae grown in NAC- and pluronic F127-supplemented culture media are suitable for live-feed applications.