Determination of biological characteristics of Artemia salina (crustacea: anostraca) population from Sabkhet Sijoumi (NE Tunisia)

Abstract

1 - Artemia (Crustacea, Anostraca) are typical inhabitants of extreme environment, as inland salt lakes and coastal salterns, distributed all over the world. This species has been shown to be an irreplaceable live feed for marine and shrimp larvae, and can be used by biologist for studying their evolution and developmental biology. 2 - The aim of this paper is to determinate the biological characteristics of Artemia salina of Sabkhet Sijoumi (NE Tunisia) using cysts and naupliar biometrics, as well as lipid and fatty acid profiles and reproductive characteristics. 3 - The results showed that the hydrated cysts measured 260.9 ± 25.6 μm in diameter and the freshly hatched nauplii 436.7 ± 49.7 μm in length. The study of fatty acid methyl esters revealed that the Sijoumi Artemia population belongs to the “marine” type of Artemia showing a high level of eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5n-3, 14.73 ± 0.78%). The reproductive characteristics revealed that the percentage of oviparous offspring was 28.42%. 4 - This study is a contribution to the characterization of Artemia population from the African coast of the Mediterranean region. Morover, Artemia from Sabkhet Sijoumi showed that this strain can be used as an acceptable food source in aquaculture hatcheries.