World Bank assisted National Agricultural Research Project (NARP) - University of Port Harcourt
Abstract
A comparative evaluation of the effectiveness for zooplankton harvest
for three local fabrics (a white poplin, 120\u3bcm; grey baft,
200\u3bcm; a nylon, 235\u3bcm) and an imported standard zooplankton
net of mesh size 76\u3bcm were tested in this study. Mesh sizes and
gauze constitution of the fabrics were determined with an ocular
micrometer under a compound microscope. Filtration efficiency and
clogging rates of the fabrics were also measured. All fabrics were
effective in harvesting species of the copepods, the cladocerans and
the large-sized rotifer, Asplanchna . The grey baft and the nylon net
were not effective in harvesting the small-sized rotifer species like
Keratella , Filinia and Trichocerca . All the fabrics effectively
harvested Moina , an excellent freshwater cladoceran for fish
larval-rearing. Clogging rate was found to be a function of gauze
constitution, while filtration efficiency was an index of both gauze
constitution and mesh size of fabrics. @ JASE