Effect of diets on growth and fecundity of Branchinella kugenumaensis
饵料对鹄沼枝额虫生长和生殖力的影响

Branchinella kugenumaensis, a small freshwater crustacean creature, mainly feeds on bacteria, organic debris and unicellular algae etc. Juvenile Branchinella kugenumaensis were cultured for 11 days by feeding six diets including tofu, artemia flake, rice bran, soybean, floure and Chlorella sp respectively. The results showed that growth performance and survival rate of Branchinella kugenumaensis were significantly affected by various diets. Statistical analysis by one-way ANOVA indicated that body length increment of experimental animal fed artemia flake was significantly higher than those of the other 5 treatments (P<0.05); the survival rate of Branchinella kugenumaensis fed Chlorella sp was significantly higher than those of groups fed rice bran or tofu or flour (P<0.05), and had no significantly difference with those of groups fed artemia flake or soybean (P>0.05). It was also observed that Branchinella kugenumaensis fed artemia flake began to lay eggs one or two days earlier and had the most egg numbers of the first batch and biggest egg size in diameter, comparing with other treatments. In a further experiment, Branchinella kugenumaensis with infancy development of sexual organ were cultured with five diets including artemia flake, soybean, rice bran, artemia flake with rice bran and soybean with rice bran respectively for 27 days. The fecundities showed significantly difference among dietary treatments. The reproduction capacity of Branchinella kugenumaensis fed mixture of artemia with rice bran was significantly higher than those of groups fed rice bran or soybean (P<0.05), and had no significantly difference with those of groups fed artemia flake or mixture of soybean with rice bran (P>0.05). In conclusion, artemia flake and mixture of artemia flake with rice bran were proper diets for the culture of Branchinella kugenumaensis, which could enhance the growth and mass multiplication of this animal obviously.