Feeding in the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus

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Abstract
The laboratory feeding behavior of Brachionus calyciflorus varies depending upon the type of food cell available in suspension. When feeding on the yeast Rhodotorula glutinis, rotifers show a continuous increase in ingestion with increased cell density between 0.01 and 1000 μg dry weight ml-1. Effective clearance rates drop from ca. 50 μl animal-1 h-1 to less than 0.5 μl animal-1 h-1 over this food density range. When feeding on Englena gracilis, B. calyciflorus ingestion rates are constant between 1.0 and 100 μg ml-1 of available food, averaging close to 25 ng animal-1 h-1. The decrease in clearance rate is more striking than with R. glutinis, dropping from 45 μl animal-1 h-1 at 0.1 μg ml-1 to 0.13 μl animal-1 h-1 at 100 μg ml-1. Differences between the patterns obtained with the two food types indicate fundamental dissimilarities in the feeding behavior of this rotifer species when presented with these different foods.