Recent Developments On The Aplication Of Artemia In The Ornamental Fish Culture

Recent Developments On The Aplication Of Artemia In The Ornamental Fish Culture

Koru, Edis
Turkmen, Gurel

Production of animals for the aquarium hobbyist trade is a rapidly growing sector of the aquacultural industry, and it will continue to become more important as restrictions are placed on collecting animals for the wild. Improved techniques for marine food-fish larviculture since the early 1980’s have greatly enhanced the growth and survival of freshwater ornamental fish larvae largely through improved technology regarding live food culture and larval rearing practices. Research developments in larviculture and early rearing technology have allowed 90% of currently marketed freshwater ornamental fish to be cultured. However, for marine ornamentals, the reverse is true as only a handful of species is produced via aquaculture technology. A major task in devising a protocol for the artificial propagation of a fish species is the development of a feeding regimen for the larvae. Live feeds are a convenient and often essential food source for the larvae of some cultured species, especially those without a fully developed digestive system. In such cases, live food organisms provide digestive enzymes that breakdown the food ingested by larvae and can be described as naturally encapsulated bags of nutrients. Two major concerns among aquaculturists are providing organisms appropriate to the size of the larvae at the first feeding stage and then supplying the large numbers of feed organisms necessary to maintain the larvae. Since no artificial feed formulation is yet available to completely substitute for Artemia, feeding live prey to young fish larvae still remains essential in commercial hatchery operations. This paper reports the recent developments in the applications of Artemia nauplii, decapsulated Artemia cysts and on-grown Artemia in the ornamental fish culture.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2010-06

613