Artemia Bioencapsulation I. Effect of Particle Sizes on the Filtering Behavior of Artemia Franciscana

Abstract

Artemia is not believed to be a selective filter-feeding organism; however, evidence of an influence of the size of the nutrient particles on the filtration process of this crustacean is presented. To evaluate the influence of the size of food on the filtration process, assays with latex particles and with starch granules were made. A relation between the frequency distribution of size of the particles found in the digestive tract of the animals and the frequency distribution of size of the particles found in the medium is shown. The results indicate that Artemia has a preference for food of specific size. The behavior of different size-classes of animals analyzed is shown, but I conclude the size of food for Artemia must range between 6.8 and $$27.5 \ \mu {\rm m}$$, with the optimum about $$16.0 \ \mu {\rm m}$$.