The brine shrimp (artemia sp)

Brine shrimp (artemia sp) belong to a subclass of small free swimming arthropods that live in both fresh and saltwater bodies.

Juvenile or adult Artemia sp. is often used a live prey for the rearing of early life stages of some marine species including crustaceans, fishes and cephalopods.

Artemia sp., the brine shrimp is a very unusual invertebrate of salt lakes. In its natural environment under certain condition Artemia produces cysts that float at the water surface and are driven ashore by wind and waves.

These cysts are metabolically inactive and do not develop further as long as they kept dry. After about 20 h the outer membrane of the cyst bursts and the embryo appears surrounded by the hatching membrane.

At present more than 500 Artemia producing areas are known around the world such as North America, China, Iran, and Russia.

Today Artemia are generally used as food for feeding larval and postlarval stages of fish and shrimps. The shrimp can either be harvested directly and quick frozen or more often eggs are collected and sold to culturist who hatch them and feed the larvae to fish.
The brine shrimp (artemia sp)