Comments on the diet of Asplanchna priodonta (Gosse, 1850) in the Dobczycki dam reservoir on the basis of field sample observations

During a monitoring programme the diet composition of Asplanchna priodonta was studied. Samples were collected every month from the deepest part of the Dobczycki dam reservoir (Southern Poland). The diet of A. priodonta, which included colonial cyanobacteria, diatoms, dinoflagelates and protozoa, indicated that it is both a grazer and a predator. These results support the hypothesis that A. priodonta is an opportunistic feeder. Additionally these results include the first observations of the protozoan Tintinnopsis sp. as a food source of Asplanchna.