artemia bioencapsulation i.
effect of particles sizes on the filtering behavior of Artemia franciscana
R. Gelabert
Fernandez-2001
Journal of Crustacean Biology, 21(2) : 435-442
Abstract:
Artemia is not believed to be a selective
filter-feeding organism; however, evidence of an influence of the size of
the nutrient particles on the filtration process of this crustacean is
presented. To evaluate the influence of the size of food on the filtration
process, assays with latex particles and with starch granules were made. A
relation between the frequency distribution of size of the particles found
in the digestive tract of the animals and the frequency distribution of size
of the particles found in the medium is shown. The results indicated that
Artemia has a preference for food of specific size. The behavior of
different size-classes of animals analysed is shown, but I conclude the size
of food for Artemia must range between 6.8 and 27.5 µm, with the optimum
about 16.0 µm.
(Centro de
Investigaciones Marinas, Universidad de La Habana, Cuba, e-mail: rgelabertf@hotmail.com,
rgf@hp.fciencias.unam.mx)