Artemia nauplii in a marine aquarium – how, to whom and why?

One way or another, all topics for materials are given to us by clients, asking the same questions. When there are too many repetitions of a question, this is a kind of sign for us that it’s time to write an article and distribute a link to it. So today we will talk about freezing. Which to whom, how often and why.

What follows will be some interesting but lengthy text. Therefore, if you are only interested in brief conclusions and recommendations, here is a link directly to them. If you are interested in figuring it out yourself, read on.

Previously, everything was simpler for aquarists: here’s an artemia, here’s a cyclops, and here’s squid or shrimp from the supermarket. Feed and be happy. But when the range of frozen food for fish and corals exceeded 20 types, customers began to get lost. Now let’s sort everything out. Conventionally, all freezing for aquarists can be divided into three types: freezing mainly for fish, mainly for corals and universal food. We do not take such criteria as the quality of raw materials, the method of freezing and the place of catch, since you will not find the truth for everyone. Let's roughly assume that all frozen foods on the market are of high quality and we just need to decide what to feed whom.

Separately, in one paragraph I want to say about frozen foods from the supermarket. Please do not feed them to your fish or corals. According to the harvesting technology, the use of phosphorus-containing compounds is allowed to improve the appearance and longer storage of seafood for human consumption. Our body is less susceptible to such compounds, practically not accumulating them in the body. But the fish hoards everything and forgives nothing.

If you do buy seafood to feed your aquarium, avoid mussels (filter feeders of everything) and cooked seafood (especially pink or red shrimp).

Appearance

Artemia is one of the most amazing and unusual creatures, interesting for its lifestyle and unique adaptive abilities. They first learned about Artemia in 1755, although, as evidenced by the results of scientific research, this crustacean appeared almost 2 hundred million years ago. And the most paradoxical thing is that over this such a long period of time, she practically did not change in appearance.

The size of an adult is up to 20 mm, and the larvae, which are used to feed the fry, are about 0.3 mm. Experts are amazed by the ability of brine shrimp to adapt to sudden changes in climatic conditions and survive in almost any environment.

Numerous experiments and studies have shown that this creature retains its viability even at temperatures of about 200°C.

Artemia eggs are also unique. They can exist for a long time without oxygen supply and produce embryos even after 50 or more years. Artemia are born with one eye, and then after a certain time they develop another pair of visual organs. The crustacean is distinguished by its rich, bright scarlet red color, which, according to experts, indicates its oxygen saturation and ability to live in a salt-free environment.

Artemia feeds on phytoplankton, which it absorbs using specific organs located in the sternum area. Among this subspecies there are both male and female individuals. Females differ from males by having a special pouch designed for mating. Males have peculiar claws necessary for gripping during the mating process. But science also knows cases of same-sex reproduction of Artemia, in which only females took part, which is also a unique and unusual fact that remains a mystery to scientists to this day.

Artemia goes through a full development cycle, and each stage has its own characteristics and is optimally suited for certain fish:

1. Cysts are Artemia eggs. Rich in protein and great for fry and small fish.
2. Nauplii are small brine shrimp that have just emerged into the world. Used by aquarists as a starter food, which is especially suitable for cichlids.
3. Adults are an ideal complementary feeding option for most aquarium inhabitants.

Some biological details about Artemia

Artemia is a small crustacean that lives in salt water bodies. Freshwater artemia is also found in nature. Artemia is one of the few animals that can tolerate very high concentrations of salt in water that no other animal can withstand. Adult brine shrimp can reach a length of 18 mm. The method of feeding brine shrimp is filtration. The closest relatives of Artemia are Cyclops and Daphnia, familiar to every aquarist, living in fresh water reservoirs.

Artemia cysts or eggs remain viable for two hours even when boiled and at very low temperatures (from - 190 to + 105 degrees Celsius). Some literary sources claim that brine shrimp even survived dinosaurs. Artemia is one of the first animals to travel to space.

Throughout their life, brine shrimp molt approximately every 12 hours. The life cycle of Artemia is about six months. Under favorable conditions, Artemia does not lay eggs, but immediately produces nauplii. By reducing the salinity of water, you can extend the lifespan of brine shrimp.

Crustaceans never sleep. To maintain viability, crustaceans require constant water filtration. Crayfish have three eyes. One eye appears in the nauplii, and then as the crustacean grows, the remaining two eyes appear. Artemia are dioecious. A female brine shrimp can produce about 200 eggs or small nauplii every four days.

It is noteworthy that the level of oxygen in water can be determined by artemia. With a lack of oxygen, the brine shrimp acquires a red-brown hue; with an increase in oxygen concentration, the crustacean has a light, almost white color. Interestingly, under favorable conditions, the brine shrimp population can grow so large that the water turns red or pink. They say the water turned bloody.

Advantages

Artemia is an excellent live food for adult aquarium fish, and its larvae are happily consumed by fry and small, miniature fish. The crustacean is rich in proteins and other valuable substances, which make it possible to provide aquarium inhabitants with everything necessary for their full growth, development and functioning.

This live fish food has several advantages:

• high percentage of easily digestible protein;
• minimal indicators of environmental pollution in an artificial reservoir;
• the presence of motor activity, which is extremely important for fry and predator fish that eat only moving living objects because of their innate hunting instincts;
• affordable cost of ready-made food;
• simple and quick cultivation at home;
• fast incubation;
• good digestibility;
• high survival rates;
• accelerating the processes of growth and development of fry.

Artemia is well suited for most varieties of aquarium fish. This type of live food is most preferable for swordtails, neons, laliuses, goldfish, and catfish.

The value of Artemia for breeding and feeding fish

Artemia is a very valuable and nutritious food for raising fry of many species. fish Using Artemia cysts, you can get nauplii without much effort at any time of the year. Artemia is well absorbed by young animals, guaranteeing a high percentage of fry survival, promoting rapid growth and great appetite in young animals.

Decapsulated brine shrimp eggs, which are no less valuable food than the crustaceans themselves, also play an important role in raising young animals.

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Are there any disadvantages

Despite its undeniable advantages and numerous beneficial properties, brine shrimp as fish food also has a number of disadvantages that the aquarist simply needs to be aware of:

1. Possible contamination of the water in the aquarium with infections, bacteria, parasites and other pathogens.
2. Carrying out a number of daily manipulations aimed at preserving the feed and its valuable qualities.
3. The risk of fish poisoning when using low-quality food or eating artemia obtained from polluted water bodies.
4. Excessively high calorie content, which, if the feeding regime is not followed, can provoke metabolic disorders and obesity in fish.

It is recommended that live food, including brine shrimp, be used only by experienced aquarists who have sufficient information regarding its use, since beginners can make fatal mistakes that lead to extremely unfavorable consequences, including the death of aquarium inhabitants.

Conclusions:

For reef-compatible fish in an aquarium up to a ton, choose from the following frozen foods: - brine shrimp - mysids - sets in the form of a frozen mixture For large fish in a large fish farm, the best option would be: - mussels - shrimp - sets in the form of individual cubes For feeding LPS corals spot (!!) in the mouths: - brine shrimp / mysids + soaked dry food. For feeding SPS corals and the reef as a whole: - any fine-grained frozen food, fed into the current. For feeding non-photosynthetics and complex species of invertebrates: - any small plankton pointwise when the flow is turned off by selection over time.

Properties and features of frozen brine shrimp

Most aquarists, especially beginners, prefer to give their fish frozen brine shrimp. Such food can always be purchased at an affordable price in any specialized store. The main advantage of frozen artemia is:

1. Preservation of valuable substances, vitamins and microelements.
2. Quite high nutritional value.
3. There is absolutely no risk of infection, parasites and bacteria entering the aquatic environment, which die during the freezing process under the influence of low temperature conditions.

There are practically no disadvantages to this food.

The only thing that experts point out is that artemia should be used only as one of the constituent elements of the fish diet, and not daily, but from time to time.

When feeding aquarium inhabitants only this kind of food, there is a high probability of developing so-called protein poisoning.

Why is naupliia needed in a marine aquarium?

If you studied well at school, you will probably remember about trophic chains: fish eat zooplankton, and zooplankton eat phytoplankton. But there is one nuance: large zooplankton feed not only on phytoplankton, but also on small zooplankton! That is, by feeding artemia nauplii, rotifers and other types of small living zooplankton into the system, you feed not only the fish, but also all visible crustaceans in the system, thus increasing the population of various insects in the marine aquarium. As a result, Artemia nauplii are food for everything in your aquarium: fish, all types of large zooplankton, corals, crustaceans, etc. Dosing nauplii is the right solution in a new aquarium where there is not yet a large population of zooplankton; in systems where planktivores such as glossy mandarins, pipefish, pipits and other picky eating species live.

Conditions for breeding Artemia

Artemia is an unpretentious creature that can be quite easily and simply bred independently at home. Thus, nutritious and natural live food will always be ready for the aquarium inhabitants. Artemia is bred in special separate small aquariums. To achieve positive results, it is important to maintain the parameters of the aquatic environment:

• hardness – from 30 to 35;
• temperature – from 25 to 30°C;
• acidity – about 8 units.

It is also necessary to take care of maintaining cleanliness in the artificial reservoir.

It is necessary to replace the fluid in the reservoir by at least a quarter, 2-3 times throughout the week.

Artemia also requires a sufficient amount of nutritious food. Yeast, flour, milk powder, chopped herbs, and specialized compounds that can be bought at any pet store are perfect for these purposes.

From time to time, a special procedure should be carried out to clean the aquarium from the shells of molting young individuals that spoil the composition of the water in the aquarium. To achieve the desired effect, it is enough to provide bright artificial illumination in complete darkness directed at the surface water layer. As a result, the young growth rises upward, after which it can be easily removed with an ordinary net.

Artemia reproduce very quickly and, under proper conditions, are capable of laying up to 300 eggs literally over the course of several days. Before offering eggs to fry, they must first be prepared by clearing the outer sufficiently hard shell. This procedure is called decapsulation.

To do this, Artemia eggs must be placed in a special solution made from sodium hydrochloride (in proportions 1:10). When the eggs acquire a rich orange color, decapsulation can be considered successfully completed. After this, all that remains is to dry the eggs and then use them as complementary food or for breeding larvae.

How to obtain Artemia nauplii?

The younger the larva, the more protein, fats and vitamins are contained in its body. With each passing hour (literally), the amount of the most valuable components in the nauplii rapidly decreases, since the larva consumes it for its own growth (at the first stage, the nauplius does not feed on external food at all - only on its own reserves). At a water temperature of about 30 degrees, after 6-8 hours the nauplius moves from the first stage to the second and begins to eat food. With nauplii food, you can give the fish the polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3), vitamin C and other additives that the fish needs. Hobbyists usually practice two options for growing brine shrimp: simple (only the first stage of nauplii) and advanced (enrichment and growing of the larva). The latter option requires more free time, space and consumables, so further we will talk about each of the options for growing nauplii separately.

Artemia nauplius quickly

To grow nauplii only in the first stage (hatched and that’s it), you will need only three to five things: 1. An incubator for hatching the larvae 2. Frozen brine shrimp eggs 3. Salt 4. An aerator (optional, depending on the type of incubator) 5. A net for collection of larvae (optional) Incubators for Artemia nauplii

You can do it yourself or buy ready-made solutions. The most convenient from our experience is the TM Hobby incubator (Germany), which does not require aeration of water and works on the principle that nauplii need to move towards illuminated areas of water. You simply fill the incubator with salted water to the marked level, add the brine shrimp eggs and place the incubator in a lighted place. When hatching, the entire larva gathers in the center of the incubator, since that is the only place where external light reaches. Simple, convenient, neat and effective.

In addition, there are other options on the market for incubators for growing nauplii, which work either on the same principle or using an aerator. Aerated incubators allow you to obtain a larger number of nauplii at a time, since they can be loaded with about a teaspoon of eggs per 1 liter of water. But in general, for an ordinary home marine aquarium of up to a ton, such volumes of nauplii are not needed at a time. We use homemade incubators purchased at OLH from this seller. We have 4 incubators with a volume of 3.5 liters each, but for a home aquarium I would not take an incubator with a capacity of more than one or two liters. This doesn't make sense overall.
Frozen brine shrimp eggs
Buying has not been a problem for a long time. They are sold on all trading platforms such as Proma, OLKh, as well as on specialized thematic forums and message boards. It is much more difficult to find really high-quality brine shrimp eggs with the maximum percentage of larvae hatching.

Let's look at an example: from a hundred Artemia eggs you will never get a hundred nauplii. The percentage ratio of the number of eggs to the number of nauplii is the main indicator of the quality of Artemia eggs. The average hatching percentage in the Ukrainian market is 60 – 65%. In European and American online stores you can buy higher quality brine shrimp eggs, where the hatching rate reaches 90%. The higher the hatching percentage, the more larvae you will get from the incubator, that is, the efficiency of your actions will be much higher than when working with low-grade brine shrimp eggs. Separately, it is worth mentioning the types of brine shrimp eggs on the market. You can buy shelled eggs (for hatching nauplii in incubators) and decapsulated eggs (for incubators and just directly dispensing them into the aquarium without hatching). From personal experience I can say that decapsulated eggs in incubators with aeration hatch much worse than regular ones, and in a marine aquarium they are less easily eaten by aquatic organisms and, as a result, put a greater organic load on the system. Important!

Under no circumstances should you add frozen shelled eggs into the aquarium just like that!
Firstly, the shell clogs the fish's stomach; secondly, there will be a high load on the system in terms of organic matter; thirdly, even if the nauplii hatch from the eggs in the aquarium, the shells will rot and release organic matter into the water. Salt for brine shrimp
in our Morakovsky case should not be a problem in principle, but still.
You can use either marine aquarium salt or regular kitchen salt (not iodized!). Everyone usually writes that artemia nauplii hatch best at a water salinity of about 20 ppm, but during the experiments of the candidate of biological sciences Kostromin, it was found that the water salinity level in the range of 5-60 ppm has practically no effect on the hatching percentage of the larvae (full text of the study here ). At the same time, the naupliia will absolutely die in fresh water, that is, the water must be salty! We usually take half the dose of sea salt, that is, about 20 grams of salt per 1 liter of water. You can choose any aerator for incubating brine shrimp The brand and model do not matter, the main thing is that its power is enough to keep the brine shrimp eggs in constant motion in the water column, without knocking the eggs out of the water. We use double aerators from the Aquael brand with stone sprayers on the edges of the tubes. In this case, the aerator has two tasks: - Keep the eggs in motion in the water column - Enrich the water with oxygen for the hatched nauplii. The net for collecting the larvae
must have a cell diameter of less than 250 microns. Such nets are necessary when collecting nauplii from incubators with aeration. They are sold in specialized aquarium stores or can be made independently from a drain filter sock, which are commonly used in marine aquariums for mechanical filtration (see the density of the sock in microns!).

How to remove larvae

Artemia larvae are quite valuable food, especially for small and young fish. Beginner aquarists let this process take its course by simply placing brine shrimp eggs in the aquarium, but this method rarely gives the desired results. Experts suggest using the 2 most effective options for removing Artemia larvae:

1. Prepare a saline solution (at the rate of 20 g of salt per 0.5 liter of liquid) and mix it with 1 liter of clean water. Pour the resulting composition into a separate glass container, placing brine shrimp eggs there (about 1 tsp). After this, you should place the container in a well-lit place and make sure that the mixture remains uniform and is not shaken. As a rule, larvae form within 2-3 days. After this, they must be washed in clean water and then used as feed.
2. Growing in a two-chamber aquarium is a simpler method, but requires the purchase of an appropriate tank. Place the eggs in the darkened outer walls of the aquarium chamber, and the empty adjacent one must be regularly illuminated artificially. As the larvae form, they independently move towards the light, ending up in a separate chamber, from where they can be easily retrieved.

Using any of the methods described above, you can obtain healthy brine shrimp larvae in sufficiently large quantities, and in the shortest possible time.

How we feed:

I usually have a relaxed attitude towards frozen food, preferring to use dry pellets from reputable manufacturers as an ideal source of balanced nutrition for my fish. But immediately after delivery, we always use freezing for the first couple of days, since it is easier to feed the fish after stress with meat feed. And the main prevention of fish from the road occurs by adding the necessary drugs to the freezer. But we never just use freezing. After all, I, too, would rather dine on a delicious steak with sauces and side dishes than just eat a piece of steamed meat.

So, what we do: - take out the required number of frozen cubes, set them to defrost without water (!) - after defrosting, add a splash of Microbe-Lift garlic oil, an ampoule of ascorbic acid (pure vitamin C) and a pinch of dry fish food. Please note that an ampoule of ascorbic acid should not be used more than once a week, otherwise hypervitaminosis may develop in fish! - mix, wait 5-10 minutes until the dry food swells from liquid freezing and you can feed. In this simple way we get the most balanced nutrition for fish:

- artemia or mysid meat for helmons and other fastidious fish - swollen dry food enriches the mixture with protein and vitamins, and also serves as food for everyone who cannot keep up with the fastest fish - garlic attracts all fish to eat + has a preventive effect against intestinal parasites - vitamin C strengthens the fish's immunity.

It is also worth mentioning the already fortified premium format frozen food. For example, the American company Ocean Nutrition has frozen brine shrimp and mysids with the addition of garlic and spirulina. Too lazy to fry the fish steak yourself? Okay, buy it ready-made in a restaurant, but it will be more expensive. To feed corals, we have two proven methods and, depending on the goals, we use one of them: 1. If we feed everyone from the current:

throw 1-2 cubes of rotifers or fish eggs into a small container, add a measuring spoon of dry food for hard corals (even if there is none in the system, the smallest fraction of the food is important) and add 30 milliliters of aquarium water.
After 10 minutes, stir everything and serve in equal portions to all sources of flow in the aquarium (pumps, riser pipe, etc.). The best option is to turn off the lift pump during feeding, but leave all the current pumps running so that the food flies only across the display of the aquarium where the corals are located. 2. If we feed point by mouth:
In the same container we throw 1 cube of brine shrimp, 1 cube of frozen small fraction (for example, microplankton), a spoonful of dry food for corals (can be replaced with dry granules for fish, but of a small fraction) and a couple of drops of any activator polyps: garlic spray or booster like PolypLab Booster.
Stir, wait 10 minutes and feed the corals with a pipette. 3. We don’t use the third method in the store, but we used to actively use it in a home aquarium.
This is a good option for feeding the entire reef for lazy or always busy aquarists. Any frozen food, without defrosting (!!), is thrown directly in the form of cubes into the sump compartment, where the lifting pump is located. The frozen food is slowly defrosted under the influence of water and in small portions is lifted up into the aquarium by a lifting pump, partially crushed under the action of the pump. Thus, both fish and corals eat, and most importantly, slowly and gradually.

PS The amount of food given above is used to feed a 300 liter aquarium weekly, densely planted with mostly semi-hard and hard corals.

Still have questions? Ask in the comments below or in our facebook group.

Features of application

It is important not only to grow artemia, but also to use it wisely when feeding aquarium fish. Such food should be offered to aquatic inhabitants in small, fractional portions so that it is immediately absorbed. Otherwise, crustaceans settle on the bottom of the artificial reservoir, which leads to acidification of the water and requires additional cleaning of the aquarium and replacement of the liquid in it.

Moreover, this must be done within several hours - this is the life expectancy of brine shrimp and its larvae in a fresh aquatic environment. However, experts recommend using a net to catch the remaining artemia in the water before it has time to settle to the bottom, and immerse it in a container with dechlorinated water. Thus, the nutritional value of the crustaceans will be preserved, and they can be safely used at the next feeding.

Sometimes fry refuse to eat brine shrimp. It is very easy to understand whether this type of food is suitable for small aquarium inhabitants. To do this, just carefully examine their abdomen - if it takes on a pinkish color, then the kids like the brine shrimp. But if the belly of the fry remains transparent grayish, you will have to select other types of food for their nutrition.

Freezing for fish:

First of all, this includes mixtures of different components, as well as standard food in the form of brine shrimp and mysids.

Artemia (mainly Artemia salina)

The most popular type of freezing among aquarists. Artemia has many advantages: - high content of protein, fats, essential amino acids and fatty acids, vitamins, hormones and other biologically active compounds - artemia protein contains 18 amino acids, 8 of them are essential (that is, not synthesized in the body) - red color of frozen brine shrimp is most attractive to fish - nauplii (nauplii) of brine shrimp are extremely rich in B vitamins and carotenoids; Immediately after hatching, nauplii have about 75% protein in their composition.

The advantages have been outlined. Now the disadvantages: - only live brine shrimp have a high protein content! When a product is frozen, the amount of protein available to fish in the form of feed is immediately reduced by at least a third. — 100 grams of frozen food is not equal to 100 grams of brine shrimp! This is perhaps the most watery product of all types of frozen fish. Depending on the quality of production, from 100 grams of frozen brine shrimp there will be 40-75 grams of pure meat - to provide your fish with the required daily amount of protein using frozen brine shrimp, you just need to create a mist from the freeze in the aquarium. — for nauplii: such a high nutritional value is observed only in the first hours after hatching. Then the fry consume their own protein for growth. 5 hours after hatching, the amount of protein in nauplii is already around 50%, after another five hours it is only 30–35%. Conclusion:

Frozen brine shrimp by themselves are not the best food for aquarium fish. Rather, it is a good option to pamper your fish with the red meat they consume in nature. There are also a number of fish that do not accept other food (some types of butterflies, angels, etc.). In addition, brine shrimp is the most accessible food in any region. At the same time, Artemia nauplii are the best food in principle for small fish.

Mysida

In general, there are about 270 species of mysids, the bulk of which live in the seas (salt water). Their nutrient composition is almost the same, so it doesn’t really matter to us which subspecies we feed the fish. In an old aquarium, live mysids are often visible on the glass and in the sump in the late afternoon. Mysids are at least twice as large as Artemia (up to 3 cm in length, usually 5-10 mm) and have a white body color. They are meatier and practically do not lose their shape when frozen. Relatively speaking, by defrosting a mysid cube you get an almost full cube of meat with a minimal amount of liquid.

With almost the same protein content in the meat of mysids and brine shrimp, mysids win in terms of overall nutritional value, since 100 grams of frozen product = approximately 90 grams of meat. The main disadvantage of mysids is their color. Some fish (helmon, some species of angels, Moorish idol, etc.) do not initially perceive white freezing well, not regarding it as food. But usually this situation occurs only at the beginning of feeding. We usually recommend mysids to all our clients as frozen fish food.

Frozen mixtures and kits for fish

Also, all major manufacturers produce all kinds of mixtures for fish. Typically, frozen food of this type is divided into two types: - a mix within each cube in a blister/package - different types of food within the entire blister/package (each cube is a separate type of product). The total mix in each cube is used as the maximum combination of all beneficial nutrients for fish and is generally considered the most beneficial for fish due to the variety of composition. There may be detailed shrimp, brine shrimp, mysids, and small plankton. In general, this is a very good option for fish, but it can also pollute the system, since fish also have their own taste preferences. A situation may arise when part of the mixture sinks to the bottom, without making any residents want to eat it.

Freezing in the form of individual products within one blister is usually used for an aquarium with a large species diversity of fish. Typically, such sets contain shrimp (finely or coarsely chopped), brine shrimp, mysids, rotifers, and chopped squid meat in the form of separate cubes. This way you control what to feed your fish today. Such sets are great for large aquariums, where there may be a combination of large and small fish of different species, or when you need to understand what this particular angel or that particular striped tang likes.

Shrimp, mussels, smelt and other large frozen foods

For large predatory inhabitants of the aquarium (triggerfish, lionfish, moray eels, pufferfish, etc.) there are mono-sets of large types of food. These are mainly: - shrimp in several sizes (triggerfish, pufferfish, large wrasses) - mussels and squid (all large fish, especially large butterflies) - smelt (moray eels, lionfish, large pufferfish)

Do not use large-scale freezing for ordinary fish that are not able to eat the whole piece offered, since most of the product will sink to the bottom and rot.

Types of ready-made feeds

You can buy ready-made food based on brine shrimp in pet stores. Particularly well proven:

1. Artemia+ – enriched with salt and cysts. Excellent food for fry.
2. Dried brine shrimp - sold in vacuum packaging and have a long shelf life.
3. Decapsulated food – ready-to-eat brine shrimp eggs.
4. Frozen food is stored for a long time, helps maintain health and increase the life expectancy of adult fish.
5. Freeze-dried brine shrimp – enriched with additional protein, fiber and healthy fats.

Artemia is a crustacean creature that is excellent as food for both fry and most adult aquarium fish. For the purpose of complementary feeding, adults, eggs, and larvae are used, which can be purchased in a store or hatched independently at home.

What to feed brine shrimp

You can try to grow brine shrimp to adulthood in a regular ten-liter aquarium. To do this, you will need to feed the artemia. In general, in nature, Artemia feeds on bacteria (the so-called plankton), detritus remains and microalgae. Nauplii need feeding only on the third day. Artemia become large in about eight days.

In the aquarium, Artemia can be fed with yeast, egg yolk, spirulina, milk powder or flour. To feed with regular baker's yeast, dissolve a small portion of yeast in a small container of water and stir thoroughly until cloudy white water forms. Then pour the resulting solution into a container with brine shrimp until the water becomes slightly cloudy. This cloudy water is left for about a week. After a week, the crustaceans should filter the water, and the water should clear.

If we ensure (which happens naturally in bright light in summer) that algae deposits form in the aquarium (on stones, the walls of an aquarium or jar, on a piece of ceramic), then we will immediately solve several problems of growing Artemia nauplii to adults. Firstly, algae will remove excess harmful substances from the water. Secondly, algae will enrich the water with oxygen. Thirdly, the algae will serve as food for the brine shrimp.

You can also feed Artemia with specialized food, which can be purchased at a pet store or online.

ATTENTION !

Keep in mind that crustaceans live in fresh water for about 6 hours. This should not be forgotten when feeding your freshwater tropical fish. When feeding fish in a saltwater aquarium, be also vigilant. It may happen that the brine shrimp outgrow the fry and an undesirable situation occurs when it is not the fry that feeds on the brine shrimp, but the brine shrimp snacks on the fry.

Artemia photo

Enrichment of Artemia nauplii (advanced stage)

Enrichment of nauplii is a mandatory stage of work in the process of fish breeding. Fish fry should receive not only protein, but also omega-3 fats, a bunch of vitamins, etc. for fast and healthy growth. The easiest way to feed the necessary substances to a fish fry is to give it starter food in the form of a naupliia, which already has all this on itself or in its stomach. But your adult fish in the aquarium also needs a huge amount of microelements, fats, vitamins to maintain health, color and immunity in general. Usually we rely in this matter on the composition of the feed that we feed the fish. And we are doing the right thing, because almost all the food used by sailors was developed by biologists and is a complete nutritional package for fish. But if you only feed by freezing or are not sure about the quality (in terms of nutrients) of the food you feed your fish, enriching nauplii will be very appropriate for your aquatic organisms. Usually, nauplii are enriched with chlorella, spirulina, vitamin C, omega-3 fatty acids (precisely omega-3! Omega-6 and omega-9 are not suitable!) or complex ready-made supplements, which are usually sold in specialized foreign online stores (SELCO). Enrichment of nauplii lasts approximately 24 hours with a complete change of water after hatching and can only be used using aerated incubators! In Hobby-type incubators, it will not be possible to enrich artemia in principle.

What you need to buy to enrich nauplii:

- Chlorella without additives (we have chlorella in the form of tablets from a vegan grocery store) - Omega-3 without additives (we have a pharmacy bottle for pennies) - Or other additives that can qualitatively enrich nauplii (you need to look for additional information and dosages in specialized sources We only used chlorella + Omega-3 in combination) You can also immediately buy SELCO as a ready-made solution and not bother with mixing the tablets and liquids above. SELCO is the best option for enriching nauplii, but it has a short shelf life after opening and costs the same as plus one zebrasoma for your aquarium. How we enrich Artemia nauplii (example based on an incubator with 3 liters of water):

- After hatching the nauplii, we collect the entire larva with a net (I take a liter mug of freshly salted water of the same density and use the net to transfer the entire nauplii there) - We drain the old water from the incubator, wash the container and fill it with fresh salt - We plant the larva with a net from a liter mug into the incubator (thus the larva is washed through a double transplant) - In a small container (I take a disposable glass of 50 ml), mix the chlorella tablet crushed into dust well with a small amount of water.
This is done in order to dissolve chlorella into the smallest possible fraction. Freshly hatched larvae can consume food no larger than 20 microns in size. — Pour the suspension into the incubator until the water turns slightly green and wait another day with the aerator turned on. — After the time has passed, turn off the aerator again, place the flashlight on the corner, collect all the enriched naupliia with a net and send it to the aquarium for the current. If you need to get larger artemia (that is, grow it), then you can repeat the enrichment procedure, but with a mandatory daily change of water, since water with nutritional additives quickly deteriorates. If, at the last stage of enrichment, you take several nauplii and look at them under a microscope, you will see that the stomachs of the nauplii are green. This means that you did everything correctly and the naupliia has high nutritional value for fish at this moment. Fish oil is a little more difficult to use because it is not water soluble. If you just drop it into the incubator, you will see greasy drops on the surface of the water and nothing more. Therefore, fish oil is used to enrich nauplii in the form of an emulsion. Once again, ready-made SELCO or Lipovit is absolutely suitable for enrichment, and then you will not need to go through the procedure described below. But if you are a “fanatic” (in the good sense of the word) and/or want to do everything yourself, then: 1. Take a mortar or other container for grinding. 2. Using a syringe, take a little yolk (a few drops) from a fresh, raw chicken egg and place it in a mortar. 3. Take the same number of drops of fish oil and mix with the yolk. 4. Add a little water (10-20 ml) and rub thoroughly for several minutes so that no drops of fat are visible on the surface of the water. 5. Add this emulsion to the incubator with nauplii until the water in it becomes slightly cloudy. 6. Be sure to add crushed chlorella until the water turns light green. Chlorella is added to the incubator not only as food for the larvae, but also because of its slight antibacterial activity, which helps maintain the purity of the water in the incubator during nauplii enrichment. By the way, Artemia nauplii enriched in this way is suitable even for clown fry.