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Guide to Protozoa of Marine Aquaculture Ponds
Guide to Protozoa of Marine Aquaculture Ponds
Guide to Protozoa of Marine Aquaculture Ponds
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Guide to Protozoa of Marine Aquaculture Ponds

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As well as being a culture environment for fish and crustaceans, an aquaculture pond is a rich and complex ecosystem that is dominated by the microbial community. The community is nourished by food and sunlight, and is made up of algae, bacteria and, importantly, protozoa. Protozoa live by eating other organisms and detritus, or by absorbing soluble organic matter dissolved in the water. Ultimately they affect water quality in aquaculture ponds, including the stability of algal and bacterial communities, and nutrient concentrations. In addition, some protozoa can have adverse effects on the health of cultured species.

Guide to Protozoa of Marine Aquaculture Ponds is designed to provide a simple means of identifying the main groups of protozoa found in aquaculture ponds through the use of photographs and drawings. This is supplemented with information on the likely effects of protozoa on water quality and the health of the cultured species.

This guide is an indispensable tool for those involved in rearing marine animals, as well as aquaculture researchers and teachers.

Please note that this book is spiral-bound.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 15, 2001
ISBN9780643102606
Guide to Protozoa of Marine Aquaculture Ponds

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    Guide to Protozoa of Marine Aquaculture Ponds - DJ Patterson

    INTRODUCTION

    The microbial world

    Aquaculturists generally think of aquaculture ponds as culture environments for fish and crustaceans. Microbial ecologists have a different perspective, however. A pond is a rich and complex microbial world in which a few cultured species (crustaceans or fish) grow.

    An aquaculture pond is just one example of a microbial food web. The microbial food web is a concept that seeks to describe the abundance and roles of microorganisms in food webs. This concept emerged in the 1980s, driven largely by a need to understand fully the relationship between the oceans and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Until that time, the attention of most ecologists was focussed on the larger and more visible organisms. Only in the 1980s did techniques become available to determine the numbers and diversity of microorganisms in natural waters. The microbial world is composed of viruses, bacteria, fungi, microalgae and protozoa. Bacteria are the most metabolically active and it follows that large amounts of carbon, nutrients and energy are being processed by these organisms. Only a tiny fraction (< 5%) of this energy and nutrients is transferred through the food chain to the larger animals, such as fish.

    Aquaculture ponds

    One of the other major groups in the microbial food web is the microalgae, which have chloroplasts used for photosynthesis. These algae perform the function of plants in the terrestrial world.

    Protozoa are also an important group. They are single-celled organisms which have nuclei, as do most algae, other plants, animals and fungi. They do not (usually) have chloroplasts and by this feature are distinguished from algae. They live by eating other organisms and detritus, or by absorbing soluble organic matter dissolved in the water. Protozoa which eat bacteria that occur freely throughout the water column (above the sediment) are motile and have a device to filter bacteria out of the water. In contrast, protozoa which eat detritus are more likely to crawl over surfaces and to have mouths with jaws so that they can manipulate large particles of food into their bodies. Protozoa are now regarded as a rather arbitrary collection of different evolutionary lineages, and there is some overlap between species considered to be protozoa or microalgae.

    As far as we know, the same species of protozoa occur in similar habitats worldwide. A typical microbial community may contain 100 or more species of protozoa. Protozoa can be divided into several functional types based on the way they move, feed or their general appearance. The main groups are ciliates, flagellates, amoebae and heliozoa (Table 1).

    Example of a ciliate

    Ciliates are the largest (mostly 20–1000 μm long)and most active of the protozoa, and are usually the ones first observed under the microscope. Ciliates move and/or feed using cilia. Cilia are short, active filaments which project from the surface of the cell.Ciliates can be easily confused with some smaller animals (especially rotifers and gastrotrichs). Ciliates usually have a complicated shape, and several specialised regions inside the cell such as a mouth.Ciliates can be divided into three broad groups on the basis of the food they consume: those that consume relatively immobile particles of food (detritus and algae); hunters which chase down moving food (other protozoa and motile algae); and filter feeders which create currents of water from which suspended particles may be caught.

    Flagellates are generally small, ranging in

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