A Method of Faster Hatching “Artemia Salina”

Research on these has been done at the University of Gent, Belgium,

By: Prof. Persoone and Mr. Sorgeloos (Artemia Reference Centre).

How to hatch Artemia Salina;

1. Place the Artemia cysts in normal tap water WITHOUT SALT and never more than 4 gram per 100 ml water.
2. Aerate the water thoroughly for one hour, to make the eggs-shells through and through saturated with water.
3. Then ad per 100 ml water the same volume of Chlorine bleach (5% Sodium hypochlorite), now we aerate only for 25 minutes, NOT LONGER!
4. The now deshelled Artemia cysts are orange or soft pinkish in color. Now we have to rinse the cyst till the chlorine smell is totally gone.
5. Fill a container with normal seawater or with tap water and we add 30 gram salt per liter, add the deshelled Artemia cysts. Now we can hatch them by 25^o – 30^o Centigrade with strong aeration in the usual way. Due to the lack of shell the hatching time will be within 12 to 14 hours, which gives a considerable time profit against the normal 24 to 36 hours hatching time.

Not seldom are bad hatchings the result of a to low salinity which will make the cysts more heavy and even through strong aeration cysts will not float in the water, this is the reason for advising to use 30 gram salt per liter water.  With other words raise the specific gravity of the water, this makes the water more heave and the cysts relatively lighter.

To make the proper Sodium hypochlorite solution; we use a hydrometer and the Specific Gravity (S.G.)   Should be 1.052 of the prepared Sodium hypochlorite solution.

The Chlorine is only used to melt away the shell of the cysts, what is left is only a very thin membrane. This makes it possible to feed unhatched cysts to the fish larvae, as the nutrient value is nearly the same as by newly hatched brine shrimps.

Another advantage is the it is not necessary to separate the brine shrimps and the empty shells, as the fish larvae don’t eat the indigestible cysts-shells!

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