Aquaculture of brine shrimp
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Brine shrimp have the ability to produce dormant eggs, known as cysts. This has led to the extensive use of brine shrimp in
aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...
. The cysts may be stored for long periods and hatched on demand to provide a convenient form of live feed for
larval fish Ichthyoplankton (from Greek: ἰχθύς, , "fish"; and πλαγκτός, , "drifter") are the eggs and larvae of fish. They are mostly found in the sunlit zone of the water column, less than 200 metres deep, which is sometimes called the epip ...
and
crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
s. From cysts, brine shrimp nauplii can readily be used to feed to fish and crustacean larvae just after one-day incubation.
Instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...
I (the nauplii that just hatched and with large yolk reserves in their body) and instar II nauplii (the nauplii after first moult and with functional digestive tracts) are more widely used in aquaculture, for the reasons they are easy for operation, nutrients rich, and of small size which makes them suitable for feeding fish and crustacean larvae live or after drying.


Diet

In their first stage of development, brine shrimp nauplii do not feed but consume their own energy reserves stored in the cyst. Wild brine shrimp eat microscopic
planktonic Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucia ...
algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...
. Cultured brine shrimp can also be fed particulate foods including
yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constitut ...
,
wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...
,
soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu an ...
powder or
egg yolk Among animals which produce eggs, the yolk (; also known as the vitellus) is the nutrient-bearing portion of the egg whose primary function is to supply food for the development of the embryo. Some types of egg contain no yolk, for example bec ...
.


Reproduction

Adult female brine shrimp ovulate approximately every 140 hours. In favourable conditions, the female brine shrimp can produce eggs that almost immediately hatch. While in extreme conditions, such as low oxygen level or salinity above 150‰, female brine shrimp produce eggs with a chorion coating which has a brown colour. These eggs, also known as cysts, are
metabolically Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cell ...
inactive and can remain in total stasis for two years while in dry oxygen-free conditions, even at temperatures below freezing. This characteristic is called
cryptobiosis Cryptobiosis or anabiosis is a metabolic state of life entered by an organism in response to adverse environmental conditions such as desiccation, freezing, and oxygen deficiency. In the cryptobiotic state, all measurable metabolic processes stop ...
, meaning "hidden life". While in cryptobiosis, brine shrimp eggs can survive temperatures of
liquid air Liquid air is air that has been cooled to very low temperatures ( cryogenic temperatures), so that it has condensed into a pale blue mobile liquid. To thermally insulate it from room temperature, it is stored in specialized containers ( vacuum in ...
() and a small percentage can survive above boiling temperature () for up to two hours. Brine Shrimp Eggs
30 July 2023
Once placed in briny (salt) water (>5‰), the eggs hatch within a few hours. The
nauplii Nauplius, Nauplia or Nauplios , may refer to : Greece-related * Nauplius (mythology), in Greek mythology, the son of Poseidon and Amymone, the father of Palamedes, and also the name of an Argonaut * Nauplia Nafplio ( ell, Ναύπλιο) is a ...
, or larvae, are less than 0.4 mm in length when they first hatch. Brine shrimp have a
biological life cycle In biology, a biological life cycle (or just life cycle or lifecycle when the biological context is clear) is a series of changes in form that an organism undergoes, returning to the starting state. "The concept is closely related to those of the ...
of 3-4 months


Nutritional benefits

Since no artificial feed formulation is yet available to completely substitute for brine shrimp, feeding live prey to young fish and crustacean larvae still remains essential in commercial hatchery operation. The nutritional properties of newly hatched brine shrimp are high in
lipid Lipids are a broad group of naturally-occurring molecules which includes fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include ...
s and
unsaturated fatty acids In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers spec ...
. Dried brine shrimp nauplii contain 37%–71% protein, 12%–30% lipid, 11%–23% carbohydrate, and 4%–21% ash. The fatty acid compositions of the nauplii are highly environmentally determined. Also the nutritional quality of commercially available brine shrimp strains being relatively poor in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n-3), and especially docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3). Since these components are critical for the larvae development, it is common practice to feed this live prey with emulsions of marine oils that are rich in the EPA and DHA, which is referred as enrichment processes.


Industrial hatchery

Since the development of commercial marine fish culture in the late 1970s, the demand for brine shrimp cysts has gradually increased from a few tonnes to approximately 800 tonnes per annum, representing approximately 40% of the total aquaculture demand for feeds for early stages. The price of the cysts varies during the last a few decades depending on both demand and the quality of the cysts. During the last 25 years, the
Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particula ...
in the United States has been the major supplier of brine shrimp cysts to the world aquaculture industry and the subject of numerous speculations regarding its capacity to sustain a growing aquaculture industry. However, due to the unpredictable fluctuation of the cyst yield from Great Salt Lake, there are other sites for cyst production, such as Lake Urmia in Iran,
Aibi Lake Ebi Lake ( Mongolian: Ev nuur, Middle Mongolian: Ebi; ) is a rift lake in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwestern China, near the border of Kazakhstan. Lying at the southeast end of the Dzungarian Gate, Ebi Lake is the center of the cat ...
in China,
Bolshoye Yarovoye Bolshoye (russian: Большое) is a rural locality (a selo) in Prokhorovsky District, Belgorod Oblast, Russia. The population was 343 as of 2010. There are 6 streets. Geography Bolshoye is located 25 km southeast of Prokhorovka Prokhorovk ...
in
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
, Kara Bogaz Gol in
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...
, and several lakes in
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
. Although hatchery processes of brine shrimp are relative simple and easy to operate, a series of factors need to be controlled and monitored to make optimal use of the cysts. The critical factors are light, temperature,
salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...
, oxygen level, pH and cyst density, which vary between different brine shrimp strains. Hatching quality can be described by hatching efficiency (number of nauplii per gram of cysts), hatching percentage or hatching synchrony (time between first and last hatching cysts). There are six stages in the hatching and development of brine shrimp industrial hatchery. After hatching, and prior to feeding them to the fish or crustacean larvae, brine shrimp nauplii should be separated from the hatching wastes. After switching off the aeration in the hatching tank, cyst shells will float and nauplii will concentrate at the bottom of the tank. The nauplii are further concentrated in a concentrator rinse and separated from the cysts. The enrichment process, if needed, generally occurs after the nauplii develop a digestive tract.


Notes

{{fisheries and fishing
Brine Brine is a high-concentration solution of salt (NaCl) in water (H2O). In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawater, on the lower end of that of solutions used for br ...
Anostraca Crustaceans as food