Effects of Probiotic Fermented Kitchen Waste on the Growth and Propagation of Rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus

Kitchen waste containing a large number of nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and minerals can be used as fermentation substrates for producing probiotics, and then can be taken as microbial feed to cultivate rotifer. This approach not only emphasizes resource utilization of kitchen waste but also improves the growth and propagation of rotifer. In this study, kitchen wastewater and solid waste were used as fermentation substrates, respectively, while yeast, lactic acid bacteria, compound bacteria (yeast + lactic acid bacteria), and effective microorganisms (EM) bacteria were inoculated to harvest the microbial feed for the cultivation of rotifer. The population density, eggholding rate, body length, and the egg volume of rotifer were determined. These results indicate that the growth and propagation of rotifer were effectively improved by using kitchen wastewater or solid waste as fermentation substrates. When compared with the direct usage of kitchen waste for rotifer cultivation, the effect of kitchen waste fermented by probiotics on rotifer was more obvious, such as in the population density, egg-holding rate, body length, and egg volume, in the following sequence EM bacterial group > yeast group > compound bacterial group > lactic acid bacterial group ^ control group. Hence, EM bacteria can be considered as the best one for kitchen waste fermentation to prepare microbial feed for rotifer. It is thus feasible to use probiotic fermented kitchen waste to cultivate rotifer.