Advantages of tank production and tank produced biomass
Although tank-produced Artemia biomass is far more expensive than pond-produced brine shrimp, its advantages for application are manifold :
- year-round availability of ongrown Artemia, independent of climate or season;
- specific stages (juveniles, preadult, adults) or prey with uniform size can be harvested as a function of size preferences of the predator;
- quality of the Artemia can be better controlled (e.g. nutritionally, free from diseases).
Super-intensive culture techniques offer two main advantages compared to pond production techniques. First, there is no restriction with regard to production site or time: the culture procedure does not require high saline waters nor specific climatological conditions. Secondly, the controlled production can be performed with very high densities of brine shrimp, e.g. several thousand animals per liter versus a maximum of a few hundred animals per litre in outdoor culture ponds. As a consequence very high production yields per volume of culture medium can be obtained with tank rearing systems.
In the last decade several super-intensive Artemia farms have been established, e.g., in the USA, France, UK and Australia, to supply local demand. Depending on the selected culture technology and site facilities, production costs are estimated at 2.5 to 12 US$.kg-1 live weight Artemia with wholesale prices varying from $25 to $100.kg-1.
In practice, when setting up an Artemia culture one should start by inventarizing the prevailing culture conditions and available infrastructure.
The abiotic and biotic conditions relevant for Artemia culture are:
physico-chemical culture conditions
- ionic composition of the culture media
- temperature
- salinity
- pH
- oxygen concentration
- illumination
- water quality
Artemia
- strain selection
- culture density
feeding
- feeding strategy
- selection of suitable diets
infrastructure
- tank and aeration design
- filter design
- recirculation unit
- heating
- feeding apparatus
culture techniques
- open flow-through system
- recirculation type
- stagnant culture
