Reproductive Characteristics of Four Artemia Populations with Different Geographical Origin Fed on a Halophylic Unicellular Alga: Dunaliella tertiolecta

This study was conducted to investigate reproductivecharacteristics of four Artemia populations(A. urmiana, A. franciscana, Pakistanand Turkmenistan strains) cultured under theidentical laboratory condition and fed on a unicellularalga. Cysts were hatched by standardmethods and the nauplii from the populationswere cultured in laboratory condition using80 g/l salinity, 25±1oC with photoperiod (12L:12D). Dunalliella tertiolecta fed to all Artemiapopulations. To determine the reproductivecharacteristics, 30 pairs of adult Artemia of eachpopulation were randomly placed in 50ml conicalfalcons so that each conical falcon contains apair of Artemia. The number of cysts and naupliiin each falcon were counted daily. All data wereanalysed using SPSS, one way ANOVA. The resultsshowed that in all Artemia populations, thedaily nauplii production were higher than cystproduction. Also, during reproductive period,A. franciscana had the highest cyst production(639±105) and A. urmiana had the highest naupliiproduction (78.5±7). The highest and thelowest birth rate were related to A. franciscana(1225±193) and Turkmenistan strain (362±29),respectively. Therefore, it is suggested that A.urmiana and A. franciscana were perefered speciesfor cysts production. Turkmenistan strainwas not recommended for production plans, dueto low cysts and nauplii production.