Assessment of four different Media for the Mass Culture of Ceriodaphnia Reticulata (Jurine) as a Live Fish Feed

Experiments on the mass culture of Ceriodaphnia reticulata (Jurine) were carried out in aquarium water for 54 days with different media like cowdung (1.5g/L), pulse bran water (50g/L), poultry manure (0.45g/L) and snail faeces (faeces of six apple snails). All the media were fertilized by 50-100% of the initial amount of feed in every 7 days. About 100 individuals of C. reticulata were inoculated as starter in 50 litres of water (2 individuals/ml).The temperature of the media ranged from 24-30o C during study period. pH of the culture media varied i.e., 9.1 ± 0.40 in cowdung; 8.72 ± 0.73 in pulse bran water, 8.82 ± 0.72 in poultry manure and 7.5 ± 0.55 in snail faeces. The highest average population of C. reticulata was observed in cowdung (8.56 ± 4.11individuals/ml), moderate in poultry manure (4.21 ± 2.97 individuals/ml) and snail faeces (2.52 ± 3.01individuals/ml). The lowest growth of C. reticulata was recorded in pulse water (0.37 ± 0.69 individuals/ml). The culture media with cowdung as well as poultry manure and snail faeces were found to be useful for artificial mass production of C. reticulata.