Temporal dynamics of aquatic microbiota and their correlation with environmental factors during larviculture of the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei

Abstract In-depth knowledge of aquatic microbiota succession and their correlation with water variables during shrimp larviculture plays a pivotal role in larval health. In this study, rearing water from 12 Litopenaeus vannamei hatchery ponds, named CX1-CX12, was surveyed to characterize the microbiota, environmental factors and presumptive vibrio count (PVC) across the following larval stages: nauplii 5 (N5), zoea 1–3 (Z1, Z2, Z3), mysis 1–3 (M1, M2, M3), and postlarvae 2 (PL2). The results showed that PVC increased, in a range of 7.1 × 102–2.3 × 104 cfu ml−1, in healthy ponds, which correlated positively with total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and temperature, and negatively with dissolved oxygen (DO) (P