Secondary production, density and biomass fluctuations, and some reproductive aspects of the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis were studied weekly for two years in a Brazilian coastal lagoon. Food (and secondarily temperature) seemed to be the main factor involved in the summer increments. In the first summer, a mass mortality of fish caused changes in the phytoplankton, which switched from the dom...

Ž . Axenic rotifers Brachionus plicatilis Muller were cultured under aseptic conditions; they ̈ Ž . were fed either a bacteria-free artificial diet AD , or axenic Isochrysis galbana, or a combination of axenic Chlorella minutissima and the bacteria-free AD. The medium was inoculated with commercial bacterial additives or cultured strains of marine bacteria. The highest improvements in Ž . growth...