Effect of salinity on survival, development and growth of Artemia sp.

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the possibility of culturing genus Artemia in under laboratory conditions for locally culturing and producing.
Different salinity concentrations were used, ranging from 5-40g/l . the results showed that the concentration 30g/l is the best for hatching. This concentration recorded hatching efficiency of 68800 nauplii/g cysts and hatching percentage of 45.86%, while the concentration 5g/l recorded less hatching efficiency and hatching percentage of 20266 nauplii/g and 13.5% respectively .
Investigating the effect of salinity on individuals survival and growth using saline concentrations ranging from 30to 100g/l, revealed that the best percentage was 75.00% in the first week with 70g/l, whilst the best rates of survival percentage with concentration 80g/l during the second, third and forth week were 58.33,54.61 and 39.58% respectively. The individuals, as a whole, suffered from mortality in the concentration 90 and 100g/l in the forth and third week respectively.
The results of salinity effect on growth showed that the best length rate was recorded with the concentration 80g/l for four weeks reaching 9.43mm in the forth week, while the lowest length rate was recorded as 7.03mm in the forth week with concentration 30g/l.