The source of abundant artemia cysts can be understood on two levels:
1.How is it generated in the natural environment? (From a biological perspective)
2. How did the commercialized insect eggs we purchased come from? (From a commercial production perspective)
Brine Shrimp, scientific name Artemia, is a small crustacean that lives in high salinity salt fields and lakes. Their reproductive mode is very unique, which is the key to the commercialization of their cysts
Two breeding strategies:
Ovoviparity: When the environmental conditions are favorable (such as suitable water temperature, sufficient food, and stable salinity), female adult worms will directly give birth to live, freely swimming juveniles (nauplii).
Oviparity: When environmental conditions deteriorate (such as high or low water temperatures, food shortages, rapid changes in salinity, or lakes about to dry up), female perennials produce a special type of cyst called a dormant cyst.
Characteristics of “dormant cysts
This type of cysts has a thick outer shell that can protect the internal embryo from extreme environmental damage (such as drought, high temperature, low temperature, ultraviolet radiation, etc.).
The metabolism of cysts almost stops, entering a dormant state of “diapause”.They are very light and can be spread to other bodies of water by wind or waterbirds.
These cysts can remain dormant for years or even decades until they encounter suitable environmental conditions (such as immersion in water, appropriate salinity, and appropriate temperature) before they are “activated” and begin to hatch into juveniles.Simply saying, the artemia cysts we collect and use are actually “dormant cysts” laid by the artemia to resist harsh environments and continue their race.
2. Commercialized production of abundant artemia cysts (from a commercial perspective)
The canned artemia cysts we purchase from aquariums or online now mainly come from large-scale manual collection and processing.
Main source:
The world’s largest producer of abundant artemia cysts is the Great Salt Lake in Utah, USA, and salt fields in China (such as those in Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang, etc.). The high salinity environment in these places is an ideal habitat for abundance artemia cysts.
The commercial production process mainly includes the following steps:
1. Harvesting:
During the breeding season, the wind blows the abundant artemia cysts floating on the water surface to the shore, accumulating into thick cysts bands.
Producers use specially designed harvesting boats or tools to directly collect a mixture of these cysts from the shore or surface of the lake.
- Cleaning and Processing:
- Dehydration: The collected raw materials are first dehydrated.
Cleaning: By using flotation and other methods, the cysts are separated based on their different densities, and then repeatedly cleaned to remove salt and organic impurities.
Drying: Thoroughly dry the cleaned cysts to reduce their moisture content to an extremely low level (usually below 10%), which is the key to ensuring long-term storage without hatching.
Screening: Use sieves of different mesh sizes to screen and grade the dried cysts, separating cysts of different sizes to ensure consistency in hatching rate.
3. Packaging&Storage:
The processed dried cysts will be vacuumed or filled with nitrogen gas and sealed in jars or bags.
Isolating air and moisture is the core of maintaining a dormant state and extending shelf life. As long as they remain dry, these cysts can be stored for many years.
In the end, they were labeled and sold as commodities around the world.
Summary
Source essence: artemia cysts are dormant cysts laid by female artemia cysts in harsh environments to ensure the continuation of the species.
Product source: The artemia cysts we purchased mainly come from Great Salt Lake in the United States and salt lakes in various parts of China , and are produced through a series of industrial processes such as manual collection, cleaning, drying, screening, and sealed packaging.
When you put these dried cysts into saltwater and inflate them to simulate a suitable natural environment, they will end their dormancy and hatch into larvae in about 24 hours, becoming the best bait for fish fry and corals.