Culture of fish food organisms

Unit 8 - Brine Shrimp or Artemia

8.2.Brine shrimp-Introduction
History and present status of brine shrimp in aquaculture
Brine shrimp is the English name of the genus Artemia of aquatic crustaceans. Artemia, the only genus in the family Artemiidae, have evolved little since the Triassic period. The historical record of existence of Artemia dates back to 982, more than one thousand years ago, from Lake Urmia, Iran, while Schlösser was the first person to give drawings of Artemia in 1756.Artemia are found worldwide in inland saltwater lakes, but not in oceans. Artemia are zooplankton, like copepods and Daphnia, which are used as live food in the aquarium trade and for marine finfish and crustacean larval culture. The cost of good quality cysts fluctuates with supply and demand. Normally 200,000 to300,000 nauplii might hatch from each gram of high quality cysts.

Biology, ecology and natural distribution

There are more than 50 geographical strains of Artemia. The most described artemia species include Artemia salina, Artemia tunisiana , Artemia monica , Artemia persimilis and Artemia urmiana Many commercial harvesters and distributors sell brands of various qualities. Approximately 90 percent of the world’s commercial harvest of brine shrimp cysts (the dormant stage) comes from the Great Salt Lake in Utah. However, the lake’s cyst production is heavily influenced by freshwater inflow, and the supply varies dramatically.