The production of blue mussels is currently reliant upon supply of wild larvae, which is a limiting factor to upscaling production. A potential solution to address this limiting factor is to develop a larval hatchery; however, costs associated with microalgal cultivation to feed the larvae account for around 30% of total costs. Microalgae are classically considered to be photoautotrophic and are cultured under light, in seawater with additional nitrate and phosphate. Many microalgae can be cultured mixotrophically, or heterotrophically, on an organic carbon source which results in an enhanced cell density and altered biochemical profile. Over the course of two feeding trials this study compares larval growth and survival employing current “industry standard” and mixotrophic “designer” microalgal feeds as diets. The “designer” feed employed proved to be as effective as the standard feed and subsequent optimisation demonstrated that a diet tailored towards the development of the larvae performs the most effectively in terms of larval growth. A sequential diet of mixotrophically cultured microalgae, where the primary component of the diet changed as the larvae increased in size, resulted in the greatest larval growth (174.35 μm) and total fatty acid content (7.20% dry weight). First-order modelling indicates that approximately ten times lower volume of mixotrophically cultivated microalgae was required to produce sufficient larval feed. Thus, mixotrophic culture has the potential to reduce the costs of microalgal cultivation and increase the profitability of a mussel larval hatchery.

蓝贻贝的生产目前依赖于野生幼虫的供应，这是扩大生产规模的限制因素。解决这一限制因素的潜在解决方案是发展一个幼体孵化场。然而，与饲喂幼体的微藻养殖相关的成本约占总成本的30％。传统上，微藻被认为是光合自养的，并在光照下，在海水中与其他硝酸盐和磷酸盐一起培养。许多微藻可以在有机碳源上混合营养培养或异养培养，从而增加细胞密度并改变生化特性。在两项喂养试验的过程中，本研究使用当前的“行业标准”和混合营养的“设计者”微藻饲料作为日粮，比较了幼虫的生长和存活率。事实证明，所采用的“设计”饲料与标准饲料一样有效，随后的优化表明，针对幼虫发育量身定制的饮食在幼虫生长方面最有效。混合营养培养的微藻的连续饮食，其中饮食的主要成分随着幼虫尺寸的增加而变化，导致最大的幼虫生长（174.35μm）和总脂肪酸含量（7.20％干重）。一阶建模表明，混合营养栽培的微藻的体积要低大约十倍才能产生足够的幼体饲料。因此，混合营养培养具有降低微藻培养成本并提高贻贝幼体孵化场盈利能力的潜力。