ARTEMIA ATTRACTANTS/REPELLANTS

From: Lyle Fuller lfuller@telus.net
To: Artemia Characterization Artemia-l@email.sparklist.com
Sent: 21 January 2002

QUESTION:

Are there chemicals/pheromones that attract or repel Artemia?

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Comments 1:

I am not aware of any research on Artemia attractants. The only thing that is known as Artemia attractant is light.

Dr Sagiv Kolkovski
Mariculture Research and Advisory Group
Fisheries W.A.
Fremantle Maritime Centre
1 Fleet St., Fremantle W.A. 6160
Phone +61-8-92398102, mobile 0417940498
Fax +61-8-92398105

e-mail: skolkovski@fish.wa.gov.au

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COMMENTS 2:

Artemia is a non-selective filter feeder. It will take up any particle that has the proper size, even microscopic sand beads. Therefore I doubt it shows any attraction to specific chemical compounds. As Sagiv mentioned, nauplii are attracted to light but at later stages the effect of light becomes unclear. It seems that adults sometimes move away from too strong light.

Jean DHONT
Laboratory of Aquaculture & Artemia Reference Center
Ghent University - - Rozier, 44 - - 9000 Gent - - Belgium
tel: +32 9 264.37.54
fax: +32 9 264.41.93
e-mail: jean.dhont@rug.ac.be

site: http://www.rug.ac.be/aquaculture

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comments 3:

There are several publications by Forward on the effect of
certain chemicals (for example, fish mucous) on the light
response of Artemia nauplii.

Below is one of these articles.

Brine shrimp larval photoresponses involved in diel vertical
migration: Activation by fish mucus and modified amino sugars,
Forward and Rittschof (Duke University Marine Laboratory, 135
Duke Marine Lab Rd., Beaufort, North Carolina 28516 USA)

Limnology and Oceanography [Limnol. Oceanogr.], vol. 44, no. 8,
pp. 1904-1916, Dec 1999

Richard Lebovits
e-mail: biojuris@ureach.com

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