ARTEMIA AS CARRIER OF PARASITES
Sent: December 16, 1999
From: romano@pathcom.com
To: BRINE-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
QUESTION:
I hatch live brine shrimp from the O.S.I brand and prior to that I used the Sally's brand. For the past seven years (the time I've also hatched
brine shrimp, on and off), I've also faced the fact that every fish I've ever kept with the one exception of 30 cherry barbs, has had internal worms. I have kept and often bred, assorted catfish, guppies, goldfish, Firemouth cichlids, angelfish, Endlers Livebearers, platies and various Apistos. I have purchased the fish from various different petstores but I eventually see problems. I have successfully kept algae -free planted tanks for two years and water quality is very high in spite of the worm troubles. I won't get into all the symptoms and treatments for the problem but would like to ask, now that my present fish are showing signs of recovery if I could be re-infecting them by feeding live brine shrimp. It is hard to raise fry without Artemia. Hikari sells a frozen product that they claim is pathogen-free due to their processing method. My question is would either the live or the frozen brine shrimp ever contain worm eggs or cysts?
Susan Romano
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COMMENTS:
I think this is a great question but I doubt very seriously that Artemia
are a vector for the worms. Many aquarium fishes are raised in
outdoor ponds and have ample opportunity to become infested with internal
parasites. Artemia, especially the ones that are used for live brine
sales, are produced in ponds of fairly high salinity (around 170-200 ppt).
This salinity pretty well excludes parasites that would plague freshwater
aquarium fish.
Howard W. Newman
Artemia task force div.
Inve aquaculture, Inc.
E-mail : BShrimp@aol.com