Translation Series No.997

FISHERIES RESEARCH BOARD OF CANADA
Translation bories No. 997
Utilization of food for growth and conditions
for maximum production of the rotifer
. Draohionue ocayciflorus Pallas
By G. A. Galkovskaya . .
Original title: Ob ispol'zovanii pishchi na rost i ob usloviyakh
maksimarnogo vykhoda produktsii kolovratki Brachionua
ocayairierue Pallas.
From: - Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 42, No, 4, pp.. 506-512, 1963.
Translated by the Translation Bureau(aTM)
Foreign Languages Division
Department of. the Secretary of State of Canada
Fisheries Research eoard of Canada
Marine Ecology Laboratory
Dartmouth, N.S.
1968
13 pages typescript

,
• • DEPARTMENT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE
-TRANSLATION BUREAU
FOREIGN LANGUAGES DIVISION
-4.;/ ./7‘e•-o ,
C/ /-
SECRÉTARIAT D'ÉTAT
BUREAU DES TRADUCTIONS
DIVISION DES LANGUES ÉTRANGÈRES
• YOUR NO. DEPARTMENT DIVISION/BRANCH CITY
. •
VOTRE N ° MINISTRE DIVISION/DIRECTION VILLE
. 769-18-14 Fisheries Research Editorial Dartmouth, N.S.
• Board
OUR NO. LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR (INITIALS) DATE
NOTRE N° LANGUE TRADUCTEUR (INITIALES)
0478 Russian JTM 28 February 1968
UTILIZATION OF FOOD FOR GROWTH AND CONDITIONS FOR
MAXIMUM PRODUCTION OF THE ROTIFER BRACHIONUS CALYCIFLORUS
PALLAS.
G.A. Galkovskaya
(Belorussian State University, Minsk).
Quantitative studies of trophic interrelationships
among aqueous animals at the oresent time is of great interest
for explaining the loss of the production process in water
reservoirs and for developing the most rational and economic
methods of cultivating aqueous organlens as food for
- artificially-reared fish and for other purposes.
The most poorly studied in this sense are the
rotifers, they frequently make up a significant part of the
biomass of the zooplankton in reservoirs, the features of
their biology (short life cycle, high reproductivity, etc.)
make them an interesting item for large scale propbgation
as a food for fish.
This article discusses material on utilization of
food bY the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus Pallas with
various concentrations of algae Scenedesmus obligmus and
. conditions for maximum production of the rotifer when it
uses this food.
SOS-200-10-s

To find the conditions that would guarantee maximum production
of rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus cultures, which is one of the
most eurytopic species, a series of experiments was carried out
to determine the intensity of alimentation, respiration and the
rate of growth of rotifers at different concentrations of algae
which served as their food.
The experiments in determination of intensity of
alimentation were carried out in test tubes of various sizes
(45, 9, 1 ml) at a density of 20 rotifers per 1 ml ab a
temperature of 19-20 0 C. The duration of the experiment was
20-24 hours. Each experiment was doubly repeated. A total
of 75 experiments were carried out.
When computing the amount of food devoured on a
basis of a reducbion in the amount of algae during the
experiment, account was taken of the increase in algae and
the consumption of it by the rotifers. If the amount of
algae in the control sample at the end of the experiment had
increased insignificantly, then it was assumed that the
increase in algae and the consumption by rotifers was linear.
Increase in the control sample was expressed as (C k- C 0 ),
where Ck- concentration of algae in the control sample at the
end of the experiment; C o - initial concentration of algae
in the experiment and in the control sample. The increase in
the experiment is evidently less by as many times as the
average number of cells in the control sample, therefore,
it equals:
(Ch
Q) . (Co .1 " et)
(: 0
where: C. - concentration of algae in the experiment after
time t .
From this:
2.
(C0 + Ct)
b [ (c - C - I - (Ch - - •
2C 0 (C 1, — C 1 )
'
where: b- number of cells devoured per unit of time;
t- duration of experiment. L22_
In a few cases, when the algae concentration in
the control sample at the end of the experiment had increased
greatly in comparison with the initial amount, the growth of
algae was considered to be exponential: . k ---c o ce, , where
e- base for natural logarithms, a- constant for rate of
growth of algae. Allowing that the rate of consumption during
the experiment did not depend on the concentration of algae,
the change in algae concentration during the experiment can be

expressed in the following manner:
dc-
-
dl •
which, in the integrated form is:
a
ax
aje •
from this:
b= aC--c
•
1—eax
substituting the values for
experiments.
• • •
•
b
a, x, we have:
c oln
c,c h —c t
Figure •1 is a logarithmic graPh of the results of these
The ordinate axis represents the logarithm of the
number of cells devoured per hour by one rotifer.
• •
The abscissa
axis reprents the logarithm of the average concentration of
algae in the experiment in cells/ml, i.e., (C 0 Ct )/2. The
ration is increased when the average concentration of algae is
increased to approximately 1.5 million cells/ml.
When the
concentration is increasal_further the ration does not increase.
e.e/16
Ca 0.5c,,,ned
per boa v.
(y79,7 Ililn 5 )
41e•
gm.?
Figure 1.
ve • 1 I ,„
Leiv.; per- nil (frn;Itie4
Relationship of rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus
feeding intensity to concentration of food.
The work by L.A. Erman (1962) contains a graph for
the intensity of feeding of rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus
when the food concentration in the medium (algae Lagerheimia
ciliata) is from 2 to 60 mgm/1.
Our data, obbained under the
same concentration of food in the medium as those in the
experiments conducted by L.A. Erman, are shown in figure 2.

The graph shows that the data obtained were similar.
ka
(-2 b srenc..« Ç 40 11
pe-r 30 -
ro
/h niern.)
ki valid y eke la
0
0 0
o x 0
Figure 2.
e0 §0 711 09 74-i'0 I •
6110,vocca 0001'nocner2 L b,,,y17 d qc?'2 &wind--; / ■ 7
J/
Rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus feeding intensity
at various concentrations of food in the medium.
The points indicate data by L.A. Erman, the crosses
our data.
The reproduction rate for rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus
was studied by 2 methods: method of individual cultivation and
the population cultivation method.
The individual cultivation
method has been used before in the study of biological indices
of rotifers (Spemann, 1924; Jennings and Lynch, 1928;
Vasil'eya and Okuneva, 1961; Edmondson, 1960), We cultivated
rotifers in perforated glass (volume of bhe medium - 0.05 m1).
Observations were made daily, at which time the new-born i'otifers
were'placed in
fresh perforated glasses. By this method we
raised rotifers on 5 food concentrations: 0.1; 0.5; 1.0; 3.0,
and 5 million cd1F3 /m1, Figure 3 is a semi-logarithmic graph of
the growth and the number of specimens in parthenogenetic clones.
The points fell on straight lines, which is a proof of exponential
growth in all 4 cases.
In the fourth case it would be worthwhile
carrying out a longer test; the relationship is not sufficiently
clear due to the low reproduction rate. At a concentration of
0.1 million cel1p/m1 reproduction was completely undetectable.
The relative diurnal increase was calculated on the L.50.._

asis of (ek-1) 100%. The values E 0 and k, required for
calculation of the relative increase, were obtained with the
help of the method of least squares for each of the four series
(each series had 3-4 test lines) as a result of calculation by
means of the formula for exponential growth (ek--1) 1010%. , where
Et - number of rotifers in a clone during time t; E0 - original
number of rotifers; k- coefficient; t- time in days.
5.
2[ tga
aa
2 0.911
b
Or
45
0,5
17 4 e'itte ° 1 2 -1-4 4 1-474111
-2' 4"---1 1 4
tai:
45 tg /7 e 11 1 5 1- i9 /I
x >

Table 1
Table 2
Relationship of rate of increase Relationship of rate of increase
of rotifers at food concentrations in rotifers to food concentrations
during individual cultivation in 'experiments with populations
6.
Kommnpauird
'noun m:nt
KAMA
5
3
1
0,5
' 0,1
eei.) (b)
OnlocniummWi
111)111 , 0C r 3:t
cynut
ILOU,
(C)
1,206 1,675 67,5
0,709 1,172 47, 9
0,709 1,472
47,2
0,86 9 1,165 16,5
1,000 0
;
11,10111111101
0, 5
3
—0
:JWV.W.1
MaL—(C)--
1 0
1 0
1 0
23,80
40,05
75,60
e K
1,535
2,011
2,746
53,5
101,4
174,6
Legend: a- food concentration Legend:
in millions of cells/ml;
b- E 0 ; o- ek ;
d- relative increase
per day (ek-1).100%
a -
b -
c -
food concentration
in millions of cells/ml;
E 0 specimens/m1;
E2 specimens/ml;
Even though in ail cases the test clones .
began from
one parthenogenetic female the computed values for E 0 deviated
significantly from unity.
The explanation is that the increase
on the first day is not typical for the subsequent period of
exponential growth of the clone due to adaptation of the organism
to conditiore during the first day. Greater increase follows /505
A
a corresponding inerease in food concentration. The greatest
value for daily increase was obtained at an algae concentration
of 5 million cells/ml and amounts to 67.5%. When the
concentration is , greater than this (up to 60 million cells/ml)
greater increase.in rotifers was not observed.
The results of
individual cultivation have essential significance since they
showed the greater increase in rotifers with increasing concentration
of food up to very dense concentrations, meanwhile, the
exponential growth of the clone was preserved.
For rotifer population cultivation the increase was
evaluated using three food concentrations: 0.5, 1.0, and 3.0
million cells/ml. The experiment with population was carried out

7.
in high glass jars holding 200 ml. The density of rotifers
was 10 specimens/mi. After 48 hours the concentration of
rotifers was counted in the experimental jars, after which
the entire increase of rotifers was collected by filtering
a part of the culture proportional to the increase through 4
layers of gauze No, 74. The algae concentration was
counted and brought up to the original altount every 24 hours,
whereby the volume of the culture was kept constant, The
experiment lasted for one month (from the 6th of September to
the 6th of October 1961). Figure 4 shows the histograms for
all three variations of the experiments. Knowing the initial
amount of rotifers in the experiment (E 0 )
and their number
after 2 days (E t ), we computed the diurnal increase.
calculated increase is given in table 2.
The calculation is
based on the assumption at the increase followed the exponential
law . Observation of the spread of algae in the control jars
showed uratically no growth among the algae 1 When computing
the daily ration, a correction was applied only for consumption
The
due to the increase in rotifers.
The daily ration computed in
the experiment agreed with the rations obtained in special
experiments on the change in feeding rate which will be described
elsewhere.
At food concentration of 0.5, 1.0, and 3.0 million cd1s/m1
the diurnal increase was respectively, 53, 101, and 175% (table 2).
1 The algae used in this experiment were raisedin a suecial
environment for cultivating algae in stable conditions
of current, temperature and light. The algae used in all
the remaining experiments were raised in non-standard
conditions.

Experiments were also carried out on determination
of respiratory intensity of rotifers Brachionus calyciflorus
in tap water and in a medium consisting of algae Scenedesmus
obliguus (0.1-5 million cells/ml). The experiments were carried
out in the dark, in jars with fitted lids (volume of jars
8-11 ml). Before the experiment the rotifers were kept for
one day in appropriate concentrations of algae or in tap water.
In all the experiments the density of rotifers was 18-20 specimens/
ml. Oxygen was determined by the micro-modification Winkler
method. The amount of consumed oxygen was computed from the
difference between the oxygen content in the experimental jar
and in the control jar under the same conditions. In those cases
where the experiment was carried out in an algae medium a
correction was applied which was obtained fromihe amount of
algae consumed by the rotif ers.
According to data provided by Yu. S. Belyatskaya
(1959), who measured the intensity of Brachionus calyciflorus
metabolism by means of a floating microrespirometer, rotifer
absorbs 0.32 x 10 -5 mgm 02 per hour at 20 0 C.
According to
our data, the respiratory intensity for rotifers in tap water
is 0.12 x l0
02 snecimens/hour and when the algae
concentration is increased this value grows to 0.72 x 10
02 specimens/hour at 20 0 C. It can be seen that the common
level of metabolism for rotifers in an algae medium is
approximately 3 times as high as the level of Metabolism in
8 .
tap water.
Having the required empirical data on increase,
metabolism and rations for rotifers at different concentrations
of algae, we computed the amount of food consumed by the
rotifers in populations and when cultivated individually (tables
3 and 4). Food assimilation was l/u = 0.21-0.52. Similar
figures for assimilation are given for some soil Diplopoda /510
(Drift, 1958; l/u = 0.05-0.10), and for long-horned grasshoppers
Orchelimum fidicinum (Smalley, 1960; l/u = 0.275).

9 .
Yu. I. Sorokin and E.D. Mordukhay-Roltovskaya (1962) give
the figure of 0.16-0.22 for assimilation by rotifer
Asnlanchna priodonta Gosse and Asnlanchna herricki de Guerne.
It should be remembered that our experiments were carried out
under conditions of continual excess of food supply, and
experience in this regard as shown that when there is a continual
excess of food the assimilation by many herbivorous animals
is generally low. The limits of assimilation and its connection
with filtration ability and intensity of metabolic processes
is not understood at the present time due to a shortage of
empirical material. For a given value of l/u with an increase in
the ration R there should also be an increase in P if the
expenditures for metabolism T remain constant. Consequently,
there will be a greater increase in the event that the
assimilation remains constant or decreases slower than the
ration was increased (it is assumed that the rates are expressed
in co-measurable units, for example in cells/daM. If the /511
assimilation decreases more raoidly, then after a certain
plateau is reached an increase in the ration will result in
a drop in the value of P. The size of the plateau is determined
by the ratio of the rates of these two processes.

120- 8
1115 - ‘; 7
90- 6
75-
?, 50
Th 45 3
\n 30- 2
G 15-1
s•
II -
o
=1 EM 2
1 0.
'sp.)
•-t- 175-
12
eta
"%•-• 150 - 8
125-%
o 4
75-

10.A.
Table 3
Utilization of food in experiment with populations
Konueurpauun Pauuon
Boippocncfl,
Icynz
MAI( KrA
KaA/KaAl
3 5,5
1 3,4
0,5 3,2
nimpocr fi,
suA/KaAI
/fen
1,74
1,01
0,53
06NICH n
MIA/Kali
' 110
0,48
1,08
0,60
K, 1/11
0,36
0,26
0,19
0.69
0,57
0,47
0,45
0,52
0,35
Legend:
a- algae concentration in millions of cells/ml;
h- ration A, in cal/cal/daY;
C- growth P 9 cal/cal/day;
d- metabolism T in cal/cal/day.
Table 4
Utilization of food in experiment with individual cultures
Konueurpaunx Pattnou P, Hpupoerfi, 06mvit T,
nom,pocJwil, KaAlKill/ Na.11m14/ MIIRdA/
j
K1 A', 2 1,41
M AIL KA /MA /q1111
5 -M (4)
„,. leynt
/,-, c)
5,8 0,67 0,77 0,11 0,46 0,25
3 5,8 0,47 0,77 0,08 0,38 0,21
1 3,8 0,47 0,77 0,12 0,38 0,32
0,5 2,6 0,16 0,62 0,04 0,20 0,30
0,1 0,9 0,00 0,37 -- -- 0,40
Legend: as for table 3.

11.
Up to maximum ration the assimilation dropPed much more
slowly than the ration was increased, and the growth P was
tripled.
The case where assimilation remains constant while
the ration is increased cari be explained by the tendency "to
sacrifice efficiency for greater production" (Odum and Pinkerton,
1955). Lotka (A.J. Lotka, 1925) suggested the law of
energy maximum for biological systems. He considers that the
most important factor in the survival of the organism is the
great expenditure of energy in the form of product;
he calls
the greatest yield of product the criteria for survival of
systems of different types. Insofar as the efficiency of
utilization of food is concerned, this is usually expressed
by small values. Odum and Pinderton have demonstrated very
well in a model of anEnergy system that even under the best
conditions the ratio of growth to ration does not exceed 50%.
A study of the coefficient of utilization of food for growth
by young growing stages of some aqueous creatures (protozoa,
worms, mollusks, fish) gave almost coincident values which
fluctuated around 30%, which goes to prove that these values
are stable and change little even with changes in temperature
over a very wide interval (Ivlev, 1937, 1938). In those natural
communities where there is little food, a more efficient utilization
of food by organisms predominates.
CONCLUSION
/512
A relative value for diurnal growth in population,
equalling 175% wa
obtained during laboratory cultivation of
rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus Pallas. The purpose of the

f
12.
'•
experiment was to determine the conditions under which maximum
production could be achieved. This increase was reached when
the rotifer density was 10 specimens/ml under conditions of
very high food concentration (algae Scenedesmus obliguus
3 million cells/ml), when the ration reached the limit, the
food assimilation l/u was 0.45, while the coefficient of
utilization of food for growth was 36%.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Belyatskaya Yu. S.,1959. Using the floating
microrespirometer for measuring gaseous interchange in
zooplankton. Report to the Academy of Sciences BSSR,
No. 7. 315-317.
2. Vasireva G.L., Okuneva G.L., 1961. Studies
in rearing rotifer Br. rubens Ehrb. as food for young fish.
Vopr. ichtol., t.I: 752-761.
3. Iviev V.S., 1937. Conversion of energy by
invertebrates during growth, Bulletin of Moscow Society of
Nature Experiments, otdel. biol., t. XXXII (4): 267-277.
4. Sorokin Yu. I., Mordukhay-Boltovskaya E.D.,
1962. A C 14 study of Rotifer Asplanchna feeding. Bulletin
of the Inst. of Water Reservoir Biology, No. 12: 17-20.
5. Erman L.A., 1962. The qualitative aspects of
feeding and food selection by the plankton rotifer
Brachionuus calyciflorus Pallas, Zool. zh., t. LXI, vyp. 1:34:38.

• • -• 7-r•
al•• •
13
11. Spemann, F.W., 1927. On the Duration of Life, Senescence
and Other Questions Relating to the Biology of the Rotatoria.
Z. wiss. Zool., vol. 123: 1-36.
•
JIIITEPATYPA
1.5 eaaltKaa 10. C., 1959. flpameneline normanKonoro NumpopecnupoNft-rpa i< uaNtepenino
rasoo6metia y imanwrommix wiinoTuidx, AH BCCP, N2 7: 315-317.
.2..B a c u a bena r. TI.. OKyuena r. ii., 1961. OfIbITI1 110 pa3ne.:tenitio Ko.lonpaTmt Br. rubens
Elirb. i