DECAPSULATION OF ARTEMIA CYSTS
From: Samuel R. Chapman
To: BRINE-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: January 21, 2000
QUESTION:
My wife and I operate a shad hatchery for a state restoration project. For several years we have been successfully hatching Artemia cysts and feeding early nauplii to the larvae. Big differences in being able to separate shells from newly hatched shrimp between commercial brands of Artemia but basically no problem with the normal hatch/separation process. My wife experimented with %Clorox, time, Na-thio rinse and was able to achieve a good decapsulation regime. We maintained optimum O-2, temperature and salinity during the decapsulation experiments. The embryos would develop well to the hatching stage but she could not get a good % hatch when compared to cysts from the same can hatched normally.
Sam Chapman
Waldoboro, Maine, USA
Tel : 1-207-832-5748
Fax : 1-207-832-7831
E-mail: samchap@ime.net
***************
COMMENTS:
All Artemia cysts are not created equal...Just because you purchase the
same brand of Artemia cysts does not mean the Artemia cysts inside
the can are always from the same source. I would suspect that you
are decapsulating with a technique that works well for Great Salt Lake but
does not work equally well on cysts from CIS (Commonwealth of Independent
States-former Soviet Union), or from Siberia. Each of these and
other sources need to be their decapsulation technique worked out
carefully and I believe they should also alert the client to the
differences.
I can only speak for INVE's labeling practices and they do clearly mark
the 1 pound tins with a CIS sticker. These cysts originate from
Turkmenistan and simply do not decapsulate very well. It seems that
much more care is needed to quickly de-activate the chlorine while the
decapsulation process is still incomplete. However, these cysts
separate better than any I have seen if you don't decapsulate. Storage
conditions for the unhatched cysts are important, either keep them
refrigerated or in the freezer in a tightly sealed container....ie.
freezer bags etc.
If the cysts are purched by a retailer in a bulk type of container
and
then repackaged, there is nothing the mfg can do to insure correct
labeling.
Howard W. Newman
Artemia Task Force
Inve Aquaculture, Inc.
E-mail: BShrimp@aol.com