A Comparative Study on Effects of Different Salinities on the Reproduction rates of two parthenogenetic species of Artemia (Gaav Khooni wetlands of Isfahan and ponds around the Urmia lake) from Iran

Abstract

This paper investigated effects of different salinities on reproductive of two parthenogenetic species of Artemia (from Gaav Khooni wetlands of Isfahan and ponds around Lake Urmia) in Iran. Nauplii from two Iranian brine shrimp parthenogenetic populations, were grown up at three salinities (80, 120 and 150 ppt). The initial stocking density was 200 nauplii/litre at all the salinities. The Shrimps were fed according to a standard feeding table. The results show that Gaav Khooni’s artemia has better reproductive than the brine shrimp from Urmia ponds (except in reproductive characteristics such as number of offspring at each day of reproductive period, the number and the percent of offspring encysted). Moreover, Artemia from ponds around the Urmia Lake had a reduction in many characters with increasing salinity, but Artemia from Gaav Khooni showed best results at optimal levelʼs of salinity (120 ppt). Therefore the present study indicated that Artemia from Gaav Khooni, unlike most species the decrease in salinity, (optimal level) is also vulnerable.