Brine Shrimp (Artemia)

Conditions needed to survive (Habitat)

Brine shrimp is found in inland salt water bodies such as the Great Salt Lake in
northern Utah, on the rocky coast south of San Francisco, and in the Caspian Sea.
They also occur in many other bodies of water with any salt content, including the
intermountain desert region of the western United States, salt swamps near any
coast, and many man-made saltpans around the world. Artemia can be found in a
wide range of water salinities; i.e. from 10 ppt to saturation level. Above 100 ppt no
predators or food competitors survive, resulting in a monoculture under natural
conditions. There are hundreds of locations on the five continents where brine
shrimp live, and many natural strains of Artemia thrive in coastal salinas as well as
in inland salt lakes (rich in chlorine, sulfate, or carbonate salts).
Life cycle
Each spring as their habitat warms, masses of brine shrimp cysts begin to hatch.
Newly hatched brine shrimp larvae, called nauplii, dominate the water by late April.
As they grow and develop, brine shrimp go through a series of 14 to 17 different
stages. Each stage is separated from the next by a molt. Molting involves growing a
new larger exoskeleton and shedding the old one.
When the water is warm, food is plentiful, and oxygen levels are high, brine shrimp
can develop to adulthood in as little as 8 days. The conditions in Great Salt Lake
aren't quite ideal, so it normally takes 3 to 6 weeks for brine shrimp to reach
maturity. When conditions are good, mature females release developing embryos or
free-swimming nauplii into the water. But when temperatures drop and food is
scarce, the females release dormant cysts. Inside the cysts, the embryos are
arrested in development. The surrounding shell protects them from outside
conditions. When conditions improve, the embryo resumes development, and the
life cycle continues.

Dormant cysts - embryos which are suspended at the gastrula stage of

development (during which a single-layered blastula is reorganized into a threelayered structure (gastrula) . The embryos can remain dormant in harsh conditions
for many years for example freezing in the winter, and baking in the dry summer
heat. Cysts are minisculejust 0.2 to 0.25 mm across. They also easily attach to
other organisms, a characteristic that makes dispersion easy. In autumn, brine
shrimp release huge quantities of cysts into their habitats. Massive clouds of cysts
float on the water, and piles wash up on shore, which can be collected and sold as
fish nutrition.
Active young - released as free-swimming nauplii or as thin-walled summer cysts
that hatch soon after they are released.
Hatching - hatching of dormant cysts begins when days become longer, water
temperatures rise, and salinity decreases. Cysts absorb water quickly and easily. If
environmental conditions are favorable (proper temperature, salinity, sunlight, and
oxygen) the embryos inside resume development and begin to grow. The cyst
continues to absorb water as the embryo inside grows. Within a day or two, the
cysts burst open, releasing the young brine shrimp wrapped in its hatching
membrane.
Naupliar stages - A brine shrimp larva is called a nauplius. The newly hatched
nauplius looks very different from an adult brine shrimp. It is essentially a
swimming head with a small and relatively undeveloped trunk. The young nauplius
lives off of yolk stored in the cells of its body. Within a few days, its digestive
system matures and it begins to feed. Its single naupliar eye helps it move toward
light, where it is more likely to find food. It uses its antennae for swimming and for
pushing food toward its mouth. It eats whatever algae, bacteria, and detritus it
finds in the water. As the nauplius continues to develop, its trunk grows longer and
it begins to grow a series of paddle-like limbs called thoracopods. It also develops
two compound eyes, allowing it to see more clearly.
Juvenile stages - Juvenile brine shrimp look like small adults. The limbs on the
trunk (thoracopods) become fully functional, and they take over the jobs of feeding,
swimming, and breathing. The antennae become smaller and no longer help the
brine shrimp swim or feed as they did during the naupliar stages. As they grow
larger, males and females start to look different from one another. Females develop
a swelling below their limbs, which will become the brood sac. On males, the
second antennae grow into claspers, which will help hold onto the female during
mating.
Adult Stages - Male and female brine shrimp are easy to tell apart. Females are
slightly larger than males, and their brood sacs are easily visible to the naked eye.
Males do not have brood sacs, and they have large claspers sticking out of the tops
of their heads. During mating, the male holds onto the female with his claspers. He
fertilizes the females eggs by depositing sperm into her. Females can live for as
long as 4 months, and they can produce up to 300 offspring every 4 days. When
environmental conditions are good, females produce active embryos that hatch

while they are still inside the brood sac or soon after they are released, whilst in
stressful conditions such as high salinity, high or low temperature, or low oxygen,
females release dormant cysts. Stress signals from the environment stop embryonic
development and activate shell glands in the brood sac, which form a protective
coating around the embryos. The dormant cysts are then released into the water

Diet
Artemia are non-selective filter feeders and feed on particulate matter of biological
origin as well as on living organisms of the appropriate size range (microscopic
algae and bacteria). In fact, due to the absence of predators and food competitors
in hypersaline conditions, Artemia often develop into large monocultures, the
densities of which are mostly controlled by food limitation.
Brine shrimp survive by eating the various microscopic organisms that live in the
lake. Brine shrimp are always in constant motion because they are filter feeders
and use their appendages (such as antennae) to funnel nutrients towards
their mouths. They generally consume a species of green algae called Dunaliella.
This variety of algae is preferred because they are small, single celled and have a
soft exterior which makes them easier to consume for the newly hatched shrimp.
When there is too little or too much salt in the lake, the Dunaliella become scarce
and the brine shrimp must eat the larger cells of the diatoms, golden brown algae,
instead. These are not the preferred food source due to their rigid cell wall of silica
which makes them much more difficult to consume and digest, except for the older
and larger brine shrimp. The green and golden brown algae are too large for
juvenile brine shrimp to ingest, so they have found yet another food source.
According to research done by the Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Project, when there is
a drastic increase in the number of diatoms in the lake, the number of brine shrimp
reaching maturity is adversely effected. This has been linked to the fact that
the diatoms in the lake were larger than the oral cavity of the shrimps thus they
were unable to eat them.