Thalassiosira weissflogii is a large diatom phytoplankton. This species can tolerate a wide variety of salinities from brackish to saltwater, we grow ours at 1.022 specific gravity. Thalassiosira weissflogii is used for raising shrimp commercially, most sites claim this is the best algae for rearing shrimp and our copepod cultures seem to love this strain as we never find many cells after 24 hours from feeding. This strain can reproduce asexually and sexually, when Thalassiosira weissflogii reproduces sexually its usually from an environmental stress. We have found that this strain will turn green color when silicates are short in the cultures. The strain has gone back to the yellowish color after 2/3 weeks of over saturating the culture with silicate water. From time to time our culture may have a lime green tint as we didn't add enough silicates for the week. Thalassiosira weissflogii is known for HUFAs, EPA and DHA fatty acids. If your raising copepods this strain should be in your arsenal of phytoplankton cultures. We recommend using Florida Aqua Farms modified F/2 fertilizer on this strain with water glass or silicate water.
