QUESTION:
I recently came purchased some Spirulina powder to add to a seafood mash that I food my broodstock fish. I was wondering if the Spirulina
would make a good food for Artemia?
David L. Bloch
ebloch@alpha2.curtin.edu.au
http://student.curtin.edu.au/~ebloch/reeftank/
Aquarist
Underwater World, Perth Western Australia
Aquatic Technologies - Consultant, Design, Construction
and Maintenance of freshwater and marine aquatic systems
mobile: 0412 079886, tel/fax: +61 8 93752438
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COMMENTS 1:
Spirulina is not a very good food for brine shrimp. The best types of
feeds are algae, but it is difficult to get the proper kind of algae to the brine shrimp. I don't know what salinity you are raising them in, but you may be able to culture some algae in that salinity. If you have
some algae growing in your systems somewhere, you could feed it to the brine shrimp. Other feeds that work well are yeast, and things such as rice powder. The yeast will work quite well, especially in conjunction with a little algae.
Maryann Hunwick
Sanders <sbshrimp@sandersbshrimp.com>
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COMMENTS 2:
In reference to your question as to the suitability for the blue-green alga Spirulina for the feeding of Artemia, it is a very good food if it is micronized to a small enough size to be ingested by the Artemia nauplii. Normally, in any marine environment if you add a household plant fertilizer and lots of light, you will in short order produce a "green water" that will contain algae suitable for raising Artemia. The problem with utilizing yeast or micronized rice bran is that water quality become an issue and they are not complete diets yielding a nutritional sub-standard Artemia.
For reference in culturing Artemia under controlled conditions I would recommend reviewing the information in the publications of Sorgeloos et al., The Brine Shrimp Artemia, Proceedings of the International Symposium on the brine shrimp Artemia, Vol. 3 Universa Press, Wetteren, Belgium. In this volume you will find a very good paper on the mass culturing of Artemia on inert diets in a recirculating, closed system.
Howard W. Newman, BShrimp <BShrimp@aol.com>
INVE AQUACULTURE, Inc.
Grantsville, Utah, USA
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COMMENTS 3:
I ran a small experiment feeding Artemia on Spirulina a number of years ago. It is a suitable diet, but can be a bit touchy to use - do not use too much or you will end up with a horrible green mess! I was using a feeding rate of 0.04mg/ml/day.
Craig Lawrence
Research Scientist (Aquaculture)
Fisheries Western Australia
Fisheries Research Division
WA Marine Research Laboratories
Ph +61 9 246 8461 Fax +61 9 447 3062
Email clawrence@fish.wa.gov.au