Brine shrimp
| Brine shrimp | ||||||||||||
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Brine shrimp ( Artemia salina ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Artemia salina | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The brine shrimp ( Artemia salina ), sometimes Salinkrebschen , Artemia or salt cancer (The plural brine shrimp , however, referred to the parent species), among other species of the genus is Artemia in pet stores in the form of frozen food and "eggs" as ornamental fish sold. In its natural environment it can be found worldwide in salty waters.
In Germany , the brine shrimp was primarily known as the primeval shrimp , as it was sold under this name several times as a gimmick (supplement) in youth magazines since the mid- 1970s . The best-known breeding line is likely to be Artemia nyos , which is sold under the trade name Sea-Monkey (literally sea monkey ), especially in the USA .
Not only the permanent eggs of the brine shrimp, but also those of similar Artemia species are regularly referred to as Artemia salina in the trade.
biology
The species lives in salt water and feeds on algae and nanoplankton by filtering .
The eggs are actually multicellular cysts with an inactive metabolism ( cryptobiosis ). In this state, they can survive for several years in a dry and oxygen-free environment. Eggs of this type are only released by the parent animals when the salt content increases, which heralds that the local salt lake will soon dry out. Otherwise, the crayfish lay eggs with a thinner shell. These eggs hatch in a very short time, but cannot survive drought.
The Artemia nauplii are often used as fish food. They hatch by placing the eggs in salty water after 12 to 36 hours, depending on the temperature, and can grow to a length of one centimeter over the course of a month. One to two teaspoons of sea salt per liter of water results in a favorable salt concentration. Regarding salinity , however, the animals are relatively tolerant. The nauplii can be fed with algae or alternatively dry yeast .
Depending on the salt content and feed, the external appearance ( morphology ) can change.
Brine shrimp grow to 1–2 centimeters and can live for several months.
Breeding line "Artemia nyos"
"Artemia nyos" is the trade name of a particularly resilient breeding line of crustaceans of the species brine shrimp from the breeder Harold von Braunhut from New York, which has been marketed under the trade name "Sea-Monkey" since 1960. This trade name is particularly common in the USA. The breeding line itself is commercially available and is used for research purposes, as animal feed ( aquarium hobby ) and for recreational and educational purposes. The name part "nyos" is an abbreviation for New York Oceanic Society, the laboratory on Long Island in New York , in which the breeding line was created.
Trivia
Sea-Monkeys were regularly distributed in the 1970s via classifieds in comics and magazine novels as "Fantastic Underwater Men". In the 1980s and 1990s in particular, they were included and advertised for children, known as "Tadpole Shrimp", several times in Yps comic booklets and, from 1994, in Mickey Mouse magazines . They have recently become commercially available as part of experiment kits.
literature
- Grzimeks Tierleben , Volume 1 (1971): Lower Animals , Chapter 16: The Crustaceans .
Web links
- Artemia Research in Ghent (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Alfred lattice: The salt crayfish: Artemia salina or brine shrimp. Ernst Abbe University Jena , accessed on October 26, 2011.
- ↑ Harold von Braunhut, Seller Of Sea Monkeys, Dies at 77th New York Times , December 21, 2003, accessed June 6, 2016.
- ↑ Todd Coopee: Sea-Monkeys. Toys with a History. ToyTales.ca, May 12, 2015, accessed June 6, 2016.
- ↑ Yps anniversary: "Suddenly the pilot saw this UFO sausage." Spiegel Online , October 13, 2010, accessed on June 6, 2016.
- ↑ Daniel Benedict: Yps from 1975 to today - Yps: In 1975 the tadpole shrimp hatch - what is it actually? Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, October 13, 2015, accessed on October 16, 2018 .