A new and a unique Brachionus rotifer was found in Hwajinpo coastal lagoon in Gangwon Province, South Korea. This Brachionus certainly originated from the wild rather than from aquaculture stations because Hwajinpo coastal lagoon has been under rigorous control as a military protected area and therefore could not have been contaminated by aquaculture stations. The new strain was identified as Brachionus rotundiformis based upon its morphological characteristics. The parthenogenetic female of this new rotifer strain typically shows characters similar to those of B. rotundiformis, such as the pot shape of the body, rounded dorsal plate compared with flattened ventral plate, elliptical mictic egg, four frontal spines, six pointed occipital spines, non-nodal foot, two toes, trophi typical of the Brachionus genus with five uncus plates resembling comb teeth, one wide symmetrical manubrium and ramus, and no stiffened spine as is seen in freshwater Brachionus rotifers. Moreover, its lorica was rather small in size compared with other common rotifer strains that serve as live-food organisms (Guam, Thai, and Bali strains). This new and unique Korean brackish rotifer, a B. rotundiformis strain, was therefore named the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI) N° 1 rotifer strain.

Interspecific relationship between a euryhaline rotifer Brachionus rotundiformis and a cyclopoid copepod Apocyclops borneoensis was investigated in the laboratory culture. In a mixed culture of B. rotundiformis and A. borneoensis, population growth of B. rotundiformis was suppressed from day 10, while growth in a monoculture population continuously increased throughout the experimental period. However, the population growth of A. borneoensis in the mixed culture did not markedly differ from that in a monoculture population. Suppression of B. rotundiformis growth coincided with a decrease in the numbers of both non-eggbearing and egg-bearing females, and increasing resting egg formation. Growth of A. borneoensis was not affected by the presence of the rotifer. However, relative growth index of ovisac bearing females in the mixed culture was 1.62 times higher than that in the monoculture. Presence of the copepod did not greatly reduce the food available to the rotifer population. The rotifer B. rotundiformis responded in a unique way, to stresses such as physical damage (filtering by A. borneoensis) with the production of many resting eggs to increase its chances of survival.