Growth and Survival of Artemia, A Live Food for Ornamental Fish, in Low Salinity Culture Media Made from Crude Salt

On-grown Artemia are ideally sized for feeding juveniles and adults of various popular ornamental fishes. With the simple technology, culture of Artemia can be easily implemented by ornamental fish hobbyists worldwide. Artemia live in hypersaline environment. The use of crude salt dissolved in freshwater is a practical and easy alternative in making artificial culture media to obtain the desired salinity. In this study, we evaluated the effect of different salt levels of the culture media to produce on-grown Artemia in low salinity range from 15 – 65 ppt, trough observing their growth and survival. This study used a completely randomized experiment design. The Artemia nauplii were reared with 6 levels of media salinity, namely 15 ppt, 25 ppt, 35 ppt, 45 ppt, 55 ppt, and 65 ppt. Survival rate, length growth, and water quality parameters (salinity, temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen) were observed on days 1, 10, and 21. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) determine differences between treatments. The results of the study showed that Artemia can grow optimally to adulthood at a salinity of 35 – 65 ppt. Adult Artemia cultured for 21 days in a salinity of 35 – 65 ppt had an average body length of 7.99 ± 0.73 mm with an average survival rate of 47.39 ± 6.15%. We do not recommend rearing Artemia with too low salinities (15 and 25 ppt) because it results in poor Artemia growth and survival.