The rapid reproduction and highly nutritious contents of Moina micrura enable this species to become an effective live feed for the aquaculture industry, especially in the early stages of larval development. In order to further enhance its nutritional quality, M. micrura they should be fed with high quality food sources , such as beneficial phytoplankton and bacterial species. Therefore, the objective of this study aimed to determine the effect of mono- and mixed-microalgae and bacteria diets on the growth, reproductive capacity , and nutritional composition of M. micrura.
In terms of nutritional content, the highest polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) (32.4%) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (5.8%) were obtained when M. micrura was fed with the T10 diet. The addition of O. haematophilum to poor quality cyanobacterial diets (T12: M. aeruginosa and T13: P. agardhii) significantly (P < 0.05) increased the population density and reproductive capacit y of M. micrura, but not the nutritional contents. Overall, the selection of a microalgae-bacteria consortium has important implications for improving the production of high-quality cladoceran for sustainable cladoceran cultivation, which can be used as a high-quality live feed in the aquaculture industry.
Moina micrura was treated with 13 diets including mono (T1-T7) and mixed diets (T8-T13). Mono diets include two green algae species; Chlorella vulgaris (T1) and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (T2) , two diatoms Cyclotella meneghiniana (T3) and Pavlova noctivaga (T4), two cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa (T5), Planktothrix agardhii (T6), and a bacterium Ochrobactrum haematophilum (T7). Meanwhile, mixed diets include the combination of each mono microalgal diet and the bacterium; T8 (T1+T7), T9 (T2+T7), T10 (T3 + T7), T11 (T4 + T7), T12 (T5 +T7), T13 (T6 + T7). Experiments on individual reproductive capacit y were observed for fifteen replicates , while, t he population growth study was conducted in triplicates for each treatment. The culture conditions were maintained at room temperature 27.0 ± 2.0° under a photoperiod of 12 h light: 12 h dark. Proximate analyse s (protein and lipid) and fatty acid profiling were conducted to assess the impact of each diet on the reproductive capacity and population growth . The combination of the bacterium, O. haematophilum with high-quality microalgae, especially the T10 diet (C. meneghiniana + O. haematophilum ) significantly (P < 0.05) increased the population density (4780.3 ind. L-1 ) (Figure 1) and reproductive capacities , particularly, eggs (40.2 eggs clutches-1 female- 1) and offspring (36.7 offsprings female-1) production.