The larvae were fed once daily from 3 days post hatch (dph)
with 3 B. plicatilis/ml. In the control treatment rotifers were
enriched with 0.35 g/L Selco presso (INVE Aquaculture SA, Belgium)
for 3 h. Yeast b-1,3/1,6-glucan in form of MacroGard® (batch
number Q511156; kindly provided by Biorigin, Brazil) was used in
the second treatment and 0.5 g/L MacroGard®, as used in Ref. [12],
was added to the 0.35 g/L Selco enrichment and incubated with the
rotifers for 3 h. In order to ensure that MacroGard® was taken up by
B. plicatilis the suspension of MacroGard® in sterile sea water was
sonicated for 4 30 s at power 6 (Sonifer® cell disruptor B-30,
Branson Sonic Power Co.) prior to enrichment to ensure small
enough particle size (20 mm) [35]. Sonicated MacroGard® was
prepared fresh every day and particle size was verified by light
microscopy. The treatments were run with three tank replicates
each. From day 13 dph onwards all tanks were additionally fed
untreated Artemia sp. nauplii (1 nauplius ml/L).