Influence of Different Diets on Length and Biomass Production of Brine Shrimp Artemia Franciscana (Kellog, 1906)

Abstract

Total length and biomass production of the brine shrimp Artemia franciscana were studied fed on soybean and wheat micropulverized meals (applied alone or mixed at different proportions), live microalgae (Tetraselmis suecica and Chaetoceros calcitrans), and dried Spirulina as diets. Eight diets were tested in triplicates during 10 days. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were observed from day 1 onwards. The mixed meal-based diets showed better production results. At day 1, the Artemia nauplii fed on the 70% wheat meal/ 30% soya meal diet were 30% longer compared to the animals from the C. calcitrans group. At day 10, the organisms fed with the 100% soya meal diet were 68% longer than those fed on the C. calcitrans diet. The final biomass production (wet and dry weight) for the mixed meal diet groups was higher than that obtained for the algal treatments, although survival rate was higher for the C. calcitrans diet. A soya-wheat meal diet is recommended for brine shrimp biomass production.

Survival, growth, and biomass of brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana) fed with spirulina powder and soybean flour

“…Feeding with soybean flour causes a low survival rate, because the flour particle size is too large, so it settles at the bottom of the tank, which pollutes the water [34] . Feed particles that attach to the tank will deteriorate the water quality due to accumulation of the hazardous gases such as nitrite [26,35] . Factors that influence the growth of Artemia include Artemia strain, nutritional content of feed and water quality, especially temperature and salinity [1,36,37] .…”

“…According to Saharan & Jood [24] , spirulina powder contains 71.90% protein, 1.27% lipid, and 13.63% carbohydrates, whereas Qaranjiki and Kırkağaç [25] found that nutrition content of spirulina powder including protein, lipid, and carbohydrate were 60.94%, 4.57%, and 28.07% respectively. Spirulina powder was also used as feed ingredients in several Artemia rearing studies [26,27,28] . Soybeans (Glycine max) belonging to the family leguminosae that grows in tropical and subtropical regions, and one of the world's most important sources of protein [29] .…”

“…Amin et al [21] , stated that soybean meal can used as protein source for Artemia feed. Other studies were also used soybean meal as Artemia feed ingredient [26,28,32] . The aim of this study was to determine and compare the survival, length growth and biomass of Artemia fed spirulina powder and soybean flour.…”

Assessment of endemic microalgae as potential food for Artemia franciscana culture

“…did not follow a pattern, requiring further evaluation to determine the cause of its low dry weight. Other authors suggest that energy content of these species of microalgae can affect the growth of Artemia (García-Ulloa et al, 1999;Godinez et al, 2004).…”