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Microalgae as an aquaculture feed produced in a short light-path annular column photobioreactor

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Abstract

In this work, four microalgae species (Chlorella vulgaris, Trachydiscus minutus, Monodopsis sp., and Monoraphidium sp.) were selected and grown in a novel, 30 L short-light path annular-column photobioreactor (AC-PBR). The aim was to test the microalgae growth on a pilot scale and evaluate the potential use as an alternative fish feed in hatcheries based on the content and composition of fatty acids. All microalgae species reached a high biomass density between 3.65 and 5.32 g DW L−1 during a 14-day trial. The highest growth rate of 0.25 ± 0.05 d−1 was calculated for Trachydiscus culture. The highest total content of fatty acids (TFA) was determined for Monodopsis and Trachydiscus biomass as the concentration reached 74.5 ± 6.3 and 72.4 ± 7.6 mg g−1 DW, respectively. These two species contained mostly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; C20:5n3), the crucial FA for carnivorous fish whose concentration reached the value of 25.3 ± 0.9% and 31.9 ± 2.0% of TFA for Monodopsis and Trachydiscus, respectively. A high amount of linoleic acid (LA; C18:2n6), another important FA for freshwater aquafeed, was found in Chlorella biomass up to the concentration of 21.9 ± 1.5% of TFA. The present results suggest the feasibility of in-house cultivation of selected microalgae species as a quality live feed source for fish hatcheries.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Linda Nedbalová and Ms. Alena Lukešová for providing microalgae species, then thank Dr. Martin Lukeš for technical assistance during analysis and Ms. Soňa Pekařová for technical assistance during experiments. The authors also thank Mr. Jason Dean for language correction.

Funding

This work was supported by Program INTERREG V-A Austria – Czech Republic, project ATCZ221 „Algae4Fish".

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Centre Algatech, Laboratory of Algal Biotechnology, Novohradská 237, Třeboň, Czech Republic

    Karolína Štěrbová, João Câmara Manoel, Gergely Ernő Lakatos, Tomáš Grivalský & Jiří Masojídek

  2. Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1760, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    João Câmara Manoel & Jiří Masojídek

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  1. Karolína Štěrbová
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  2. João Câmara Manoel
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  3. Gergely Ernő Lakatos
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  4. Tomáš Grivalský
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  5. Jiří Masojídek
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Contributions

Karolína Štěrbová contributed to conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis and writing—original draft preparation and reviewing and editing. João Câmara Manoel contributed to data curation. Gergely Ernő Lakatos – contributed to data curation. Tomáš Grivalský – contributed to data curation. Jiří Masojídek contributed to technical design, supervision, writing – reviewing and editing.

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Correspondence to Karolína Štěrbová.

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Štěrbová, K., Manoel, J.C., Lakatos, G.E. et al. Microalgae as an aquaculture feed produced in a short light-path annular column photobioreactor. J Appl Phycol 35, 603–611 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-023-02928-x

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