1 DECEMBER 1999
Sent: November 01, 1999
From: <carhawkins@telstra.easymail.com.au>
To: <artemia-l@sparklist.com>
QUESTION:
Just wondering if anyone can help me out as to why Artemia develop
dark/black guts?
In a trial I had finished up, I left the Artemia over the weekend without food.
Come Monday, 4 out of 5 treatments appeared to the naked eye to be have black guts. Under the microscope, they had dark coloured guts, appearing to be full of food, although they hadn't been fed for 2 days.
The thoracopods were all clear and they looked otherwise healthy, except that they hadn't shown a great growth rate over the 11 days of the trial.
The fifth treatment had shown good growth, and had normal colourings.
All diets and feeding were identical for all treatments.
Any similar experiences?
Rachelle Hawkins
***************
COMMENTS:
I have seen this in ponds wherein the bottom substrate is mixed into the
water column and the Artemia ingest this and have a dark intestine....not necessarily healthy though!
You failed to mentioned what you were feeding. Is there a chance that a bacterial or algae bloom (albeit small) occurred and sustained their
feeding?
Did you post any and look at the contents microscopically?
More clues might be helpful.
Howard W. Newman
Inve Aquaculture, Inc
Artemia task-force div.
E-mail: Bshrimp@aol.com