Currently, the laboratory has a working stock of approximately 5-10 billion rotifers (Branchionus plicatilis) and has the capacity of producing up to 600 million enriched rotifers each day.
Rotifers are brackish water microorganisms used in the first-feeding of larval finfish. Rotifers are about 150-300 µm in size (right, top) and reproduce quickly through the production of an egg sac (right, bottom).
Filtration and Enrichment Seawater and freshwater pass through a series of filtration systems including sand filters (20 µm) and cartridge filters (10 µm, 5 µm, 0.35 µm), and is irradiated using ultraviolet light (120,000 mw/sec) (below, left).
Rotifers are enriched with Algamac or T-Isochrysis for durations of 12, 18 or 24 hours based on client demand (below, insert).
Growth Rotifers are grown in a combination of fresh and seawater (brackish water) in large tanks (right). They are fed a daily diet of
