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

This study was conducted to investigate reproductive lt;br / gt;characteristics of four Artemia populations lt;br / gt;(A. urmiana, A. franciscana, Pakistan lt;br / gt;and Turkmenistan strains) cultured under the lt;br / gt;identical laboratory condition and fed on a unicellular lt;br / gt;alga. Cysts were hatched by standard lt;br / gt;methods and the nauplii from the populations lt;br / gt;were cultured in laboratory condition using lt;br / gt;80 g/l salinity, 25±1ºC with photoperiod (12L: lt;br / gt;12D). Dunalliella tertiolecta fed to all Artemia lt;br / gt;populations. To determine the reproductive lt;br / gt;characteristics, 30 pairs of adult Artemia of each lt;br / gt;population were randomly placed in 50ml conical lt;br / gt;falcons so that each conical falcon contains a lt;br / gt;pair of Artemia. The number of cysts and nauplii lt;br / gt;in each falcon were counted daily. All data were lt;br / gt;analysed using SPSS, one way ANOVA. The results lt;br / gt;showed that in all Artemia populations, the lt;br / gt;daily nauplii production were higher than cyst lt;br / gt;production. Also, during reproductive period, lt;br / gt;A. franciscana had the highest cyst production lt;br / gt;(639±105) and A. urmiana had the highest nauplii lt;br / gt;production (78.5±7). The highest and the lt;br / gt;lowest birth rate were related to A. franciscana lt;br / gt;(1225±193) and Turkmenistan strain (362±29), lt;br / gt;respectively. Therefore, it is suggested that A. lt;br / gt;urmiana and A. franciscana were perefered species lt;br / gt;for cysts production. Turkmenistan strain lt;br / gt;was not recommended for production plans, due lt;br / gt;to low cysts and nauplii production.