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Live foods such as phytoplankton and zooplankton are essential food sources in aquaculture. Due to their small size, they are suitable for newly hatched larvae. Artemia and rotifer are commonly used live feeds in aquaculture; each feed has a limited dietary value, which is unsuitable for all cultured species. Whereas, copepod and cladocerans species exhibit favorable characteristics that make them viable candidates as sources of essential nutrients for hatchery operations. Due to their jerking movements, it stimulates the feeding response of fish larvae, and their various sizes make them suitable for any fish and crustacean. Even though Artemia is the best live feed due to its proficient nutritional quality, the cost is very expensive, which is about half of the production cost. A recent study suggests the use of amphipods and mysids as alternative live feeds in aquaculture. High nutritional value is present in amphipods and mysids, especially proteins, lipids, and essential fatty acids that are required by fish larvae during early development. Amphipods and mysids are considered abundant in the aquatic ecosystem and have been used by researchers in water toxicity studies. However, the culture of amphipods and mysids has been poorly studied. There is only a small-scale culture under laboratory conditions for scientific research that has been performed. Thus, further research is required to find a way to improve the mass culture of amphipods and mysids that can benefit the aquaculture industry. This review article is intended to provide the available information on amphipods and mysids, including reproductive biology, culture method, nutritional value, feed enhancement, and the importance of them as potential live feed in aquaculture. This article is useful as a guideline for researchers, hatchery operators, and farmers.

The cladocera Moina macrocopa serves as a common live feed that is suitable for most freshwater fish species. Seven diets for the cladocera, viz. Chlorella sp., rice bran, soybean meal, chicken manure, swiftlet waste, canola oil, and artificial micro pellet were compared in this study. This study's objective was to analyse the effect of enriched M. macrocopa on the growth, survival, and dietary profiles of hybrid Nile tilapia fry. The feeding experiment lasted for over 60 days. The M. macrocopa enriched with rice bran has produced the highest weight gain (5.83 g), survival (86.67%), protein (24.88%), and lipid (6.85%) in Nile tilapia fry. While, fatty acid such as α-linolenic acid (ALA; 4.67%) was found to be the highest in fry fed with M. macrocopa enriched with soybean meal. Arachidonic acid (ARA; 3.69%) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 0.47%) were the highest in tilapia fry fed with M. macrocopa enriched with rice bran, while eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 6.33%) was the highest in tilapia fry fed with M. macrocopa enriched with Chlorella sp. In conclusion, the manipulation of nutrient such as protein, lipid and fatty acid Scompositions in M. macrocopa diet has successfully improved the nutrient compositions and production of Moina sp. culture that indirectly increased the growth and survival of hybrid tilapia fry.

The increasing demand for fish produced by aquaculture industries has led to a high demand of live feeds, such as larvae. Further development of culture techniques is important to lower the production costs as well as to maximize the production of natural food for larval rearing. Moina macrocopa is a potential freshwater live feed that can replace Artemia, which originated from a saline environment. This study aimed to quantify the growth, survival, reproduction and overall life table parameters of M. macrocopa when using alternative diets of Chlorella sp., canola oil, or a mixed diet (Chlorella sp. mix with canola oil). M. macrocopa were cultured and enriched with the concentration of 2000 mg L-1 in triplicates for each dietary treatment. It was found that there was no difference in the specific growth rate of M. macrocopa (P= 0.05) between the alternative diets. The survival rate of M. macrocopa fed on the mixed diet (109.97 ± 32.85 %) was significantly higher (P< 0.05) than when fed with Chlorella sp. only or with canola oil only. The reproductive performance (e.g. average initial age of reproduction) did not differ from one dietary treatment to another (4.00 ± 0.00 days). For the generation time (54.42 ± 8.75 days) of M. macrocopa the mixed diet was the most favorable choice. The intrinsic rate (1.32 ± 0.14 ind L-1 ) was the highest with Chlorella sp. feed. The findings from this study can be used to improve the performance of freshwater fish production in hatcheries by utilizing the highly nutritious M. macrocopa larvae as live food.

Salinity is a known factor in shaping population dynamics and community structure through direct and indirect effects on aquatic ecosystems. Salinity changes further influence food webs through competition and predation. The responses of Moina macrocopa (Cladocera) collected from Setiu Wetland lagoon (Terengganu) was evaluated through manipulative laboratory experiments to understand the ability of M. macrocopa to tolerate high salinity stress. Specifically, the fatty acid composition, growth, survival, and reproduction of this cladocerans species was examined. Sodium chloride (NaCl) as used in the treatments water with the concentration 0, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 15 salinity. Fatty acid levels were determined using Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrophotometry (GC-MS). The results indicated that optimal conditions produced the highest fatty acid content, especially the polyunsaturated fatty acid content, such as EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), ALA (alpha-linoleic acid), ARA (arachidonic acid), and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). Furthermore, M. macrocopa survival was best at salinity 0, with a percentage of 98%, whereas the opposite occurred at salinity 15, with approximately 20% of viable animals surviving. Besides, M. macrocopa also showed the highest reproduction rate at salinity 0 (e.g., average initial age of reproduction, 4.33 ± 0.58 days) compared with other salinities level. Interestingly, the difference in growth at different salinities was not evident, an unusual finding when considering adverse effects such as osmoregulation pressure on the organism. Based on the results, we conclude that M. macrocopa can only tolerate salinity below salinity 8 and cannot withstand stressful environmental conditions associated with salinities above 8.