A trademark of Dohse Aquaristik KG. HOBBY products for Artemia breeding success. GUIDE ARTEMIA

Transcription

1 A trademark of Dohse Aquaristik KG HOBBY products for Artemia breeding success. GUIDE ARTEMIA

2 Artemia shrimps rank amongst the most resistant and interesting lifeforms. Aquarium owners appreciate the great nutritional value for their fish and their colour development. Even the development of artemia is an exciting and fascinating experience. This guide introduces all the HOBBY products of Dohse Aquaristik KG developed for the successful breeding of artemia. In the USA, brine shrimp egg have been harvested since about 1949 on a large scale in the San Francisco area and a bit later in the Great Salt Lake in Utah, too. These small animals which have already been existing for about 100 million years, live where high concentrated salt water has become their natural environment. Other animals are not able to live in such salty water and this is why they became protected from natural enemies. Artemia living in normal conditions are viviparous. Persistent eggs are laid only in situations of stress for example, when salinity in salt lakes has grown as a result of a high level of evaporation or of total drying up. Nature was wise and took special precautions to save these individual creatures from dying out. The embryo sleeps inside the eggshell until rain falls and salty water increases again, in which artemia can wake up and a cycle of life is renewed.

3 Hatching and breeding To obtain great hatching results with artemia you have to pay attention to a few things. HOBBY Artemia Eggs with guaranteed eclosion ensure a high eclosion yield and a very good level of breeding success. Item no They are offered in package sizes of 20, 150 und 1000 ml (454 g). Growth and size of the artemia depend on the salinity as well as on the temperature of the water. Artemia growing in conditions of correct salinity and warm temperature, reach their sexual maturity earlier but keep to a small size. Artemia can be easily bred at a room temperature of around 20 C. However they can also cope with higher or lower temperatures. When the temperature is lower, these animals grow slowly, when it is higher, they develop more rapidly. When the temperature is too high, bacteria might develop and water might be contaminated quickly. Artemia acquire sexual maturity within a period of 20 days at a water temperature of 20 C. It does not make any difference whether artemia are bred in daylight or artificial light, but they should not remain in the dark for too long. Item no

4 It is not particularly complicated to reach very good hatching results. You need a cooking salt solution of about 3.2 % for the eggs to develop. The choice of the proper salt is as important as the level of salinity for a successful hatching. The HOBBY artemia salt is a non iodized salt containing a mixture of trace elements, salts of marine water and plankton traces. According to the latest scientific observations the best hatching results are obtained with the HOBBY artemia salt. It is even easier to buy a salt/artemia mixture which already contains the right proportion of eggs to salt, specific to the species: HOBBY Artemix. Item no It is very important to ensure that the right quantity of eggs is taken at the beginning of the culture. One gramme of artemia eggs is equivalent to approximately 250,000 nauplia, as the newly hatched artemia are also called. The product HOBBY Artemix ensures the right mixture of eggs and salt. 32 g per litre of water are required. The best conditions for a perfect hatching are a water temperature of at least 20 C and a good aeration. You just need a bottle, a Hobby artemia culture equipment and an air pump for the simplest form of breeding of artemia. The nauplia should have hatched between 24 and 48 hours and the pump should be turned off. The bottle should be tilted for about 5 minutes, so that the nauplia can settle at the bottom of the bottle and then be separated from the shell of the eggs by letting the water flow out of the bottle. Item no

5 At this point the nauplia can be collected by means of a Hobby artemia sieve. Nauplia which do not serve as food are kept in fresh salt water or used for culture purposes. In case of permanent need of nauplia for feeding fish, several bottles can be linked up in series. Item no The artemia eggs can be hatched out conveniently, even without the use of an air pump, by means of the HOBBY breeding bowl. Thanks to an ingenious separation system, the hatched nauplia, attracted by the light, collect underneath an opening and can then be skimmed off using a small sieve. The eggs and shells remain neatly separated from the nauplia. Item no

6 Item no The HOBBY Artemia Incubator offers a more professional and thus secure possibility to get artemia to hatch. The bottle is turned upside down, securely placed on its base and the air supply pumped through the cap. In this way, all the eggs are made to circulate powerfully in the liquid. The hatched nauplia are particularly easily separated from the shells. The liquid and the nauplia inside it are evacuated by means of the artemia sieve. Item no

7 The majority of the shells remain in the plastic bottle and stick to the wall inside. If permanent breeding of artemia is required, even for hobby purposes, you can buy the HOBBY Artemia Incubator Set which, compared with the incubator equipment, additionally includes a plastic tank, food for the nauplia, a pump for ventilation, a sieve, brine shrimp eggs and salt. Freshly hatched artemia can be put into the plastic tank and be fed in any size to fishes. Feeding In the first couple of days, the artemia nauplia can feed on the phytoplankton contained in the HOBBY Salt. Item no HOBBY Liquizell thereafter, is a perfect starting food. The mandibles of the nauplia are not fully developed yet, so that they need a very fine food solution. HOBBY Liquizell consists of atomised phytoplankton which is absorbed well by the young animals. HOBBY Liquizell is fed in the first 8-10 days; then follows HOBBY Mikrozell which is the ideal breeding food for (nauplia), artemia, and invertebrates. Switching from HOB- BY Liquizell to HOBBY Mikrozell is quite easy because both are based on the same substances. Artemia need to be fed regularly but in small doses. Repeat feeding only when the water has become clear again. Too much food pollutes the water. Item no

8 For the culture of artemia, any kind and size of container is suitable, however with as large a surface as possible. The water level should not be higher than cm. The water in the tank should be stirred occasionally or Item no lightly aerated. The water should be kept moving in order to keep tiny algae in suspension. Even smallest particles sink to the bottom of the tank, due to their weight. The HOBBY Artemia Sieve is a very fine strainer with a mesh aperture of 180 μ, indispensable for water changing or fish to be fed with nauplia. The HOBBY Combination Sieve with 180, 300, 560, and 900 μ offers itself for collecting artemia of different sizes when continuing to breed. If you would like to explore the world of the Artemia in greater detail or intend to start breeding them yourself, you can read more about Artemia in the German book Artemia - Der Urzeitkrebs by Oliver Drewes. Item no Dohse Aquaristik KG D Gelsdorf Item. no