Abstract: Six species of Anabaena were initially examined fortheir ability to grow on glu- cose and sucrose chemoheterotrophically.Among these species,HB1017 grew fastand HB 0 very slow,While the other four species did not sutvive at all.Theeffects of fructose,glucose and sucrose,though all supported growth of HB1017,on growth were apparently different.The positive effect of the sugar substrateswas in the order of fructose,glucose and sucrose.It was found that autoclavedfructose and sucrose only supported a much lower heterotrophic growth rate thanthe filtrated ones,while autoclaved glucose sustained a higher growth rate asdid the filtrated fructose.The addition of exogenous arginine increased hete-rotrophic growth rate,and NaNO3 was suitable nitrogen source for growth.Itappears that optimal growth was obtained if the culture was provided withappropriate stirring and temperature at 35℃. The Photoautotrophic growth cultureof HB1017,when transfered to chemoheterotrophic condition,could quickly startto grow in it,without the“adaptation phase”.The average heterotrophic growthrate for 3 days was 0.74,and the generation time was 0.9 day.