Intensive rearing system for
fish larvae research II
Artemia
hatching and enriching system
S. Kolkovski, J. Curnow, J. King-2004
Aquacultural Engineering, 31(3-4): 309-317
Abstract:
Live food such as Artemia is considered to be
an essential part of any marine finfish hatchery. Standard methods were
developed for hatching and enhancing the nutritional value of the Artemia
nauplii by using different enrichment products. Although there is a
variety of commercially available products in the market, further research
on more specific enrichments for solving specific nutritional deficiencies
in fish larvae is still required. A simple, compact and reliable
experimental system was developed for these nutritional experiments. The
system was built as a compact, all-in-one system with eight 50-l conical
tanks in a water bath. The system reduces variation between the replicates
(tanks), otherwise resulting from individual heaters and aeration. It
reduces the manpower and time needed for harvesting and to re-establish the
system on a daily basis by the ability to harvest, wash and refill all the
tanks at the same time with the same volume of water. The system has been
used for a variety of experiments, comparing commercial and experimental
enrichments, bacterial monitoring and evaluation of different Artemia
procedures.
(Research Division, Department of Fisheries, Western
Australia, P.O. Box 20, North Beach, WA 6920, Australia, e-mail: skolkovski@fish.wa.gov.au)