Guide to Protozoa of Marine Aquaculture Ponds

Abstract

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.

Interaction Between a Bacterivorous Ciliate Aspidisca cicada and a Rotifer Lecane inermis: Doozers and Fraggles in Aquatic Flocs

“…It is not clear to what extent Aspidisca ciliates can use suspended bacteria, but it is largely believed that they are specialized consumers of bacteria that are attached to surfaces [ 38 ]. Their very unique mouth apparatus with its highly reduced adoral zone of membranelles seems to brush surfaces, collecting loosely attached bacteria [ 41 ].…”

“…A. cicada is a small crawling ciliate with a body length of 25–40 μm and a mouth size of 3 × 5 μm [ 40 ]. Aspidisca ciliates are believed to collect their food particles from surfaces using a peculiarly reduced adoral zone of membranelles [ 41 ]. Three Aspidisca species have been found in activated sludge systems: A. cicada , A. lynceus , and A. turrita , but the first occurs more frequently in activated sludge while the two others seem to be rarer [ 42 ].…”

Ciguatera

“…In the athecate (unarmored) Amphidinium, the cingulum is apically displaced resulting in a very small epitheca with a nose-like appearance (Patterson and Burford, 2001). Unlike the thecate dinoflagellates, species identification of Amphidinium using plate tabulation is not possible, as the Amphiesma vesicles do not contain cellulose plates.…”

Impact of bdellovibrio-and-like organisms (BALOs) on mixed species biofilm communities

“…Protozoan predators of bacteria are defined here as unicellular eukaryotic microorganisms, between 2 -200 µm in size [46]. Based on differences in morphologies, they are typically divided into three groups: ciliates, flagellates and amoebae [47]. These predators, in general, are heterotrophic and graze mainly upon other smaller microorganisms (not only bacteria, but also fungi and algae).…”