When you think crustaceans, you probably think of crabs, lobsters, shrimps and hermit crabs right? Perhaps you are one of those smart people who make sure to include the barnacles in copepods in the crustacean group too.
But there is one side of crustaceans that you probably don't know about: it's the brine shrimp.
Brine shrimp are very tiny krill like crustaceans that are highly adapted to waters with salinity. In contrast to the ocean, they prefer the way saltier waters of Mono Lake in Yosemite and Salt Lake in Utah. They are usually half an inch long; males having long antenna and females having short ones.
In their native habitat, you'll find them schooling in large numbers, forming a giant brown cloud like mass over the lake. They are important food sources for birds and fish and are often bred by humans to serve as a source of live fish food.
Brine shrimp usually give birth to live birth, but if their lakes ever dry out, the female will lay a special tiny egg called a cyst. These cysts can survive for up to a year without water while the lake dries up, and the cysts will eventually hatch once the lake fills up. The baby brine shrimp are typically 0.4 mm in length during their first few hours of life, but increase in size as they graze on algae.
They are very fast growing and reproduce in a short amount of time. For example, a brine shimp cyst can hatch in 24-48 hours after being out of water for more than a year. They mature in a few weeks and usually end their lifespan after a couple of months.
How they will help the CCAG :
Brine shrimp eat microscopic algae, which is abundant in the CCAG tanks. Since the CCAG 's windows are made out of see-through plastic, sunlight allows micro algae to grow in our marine tanks.
We've especially have algae problems in our Hawaii Reef tank, which is receiving a full water change tomorrow. The greenhouse it's situated in receives more than 6 hours of sunlight a day, causing the green micro algae to flourish.
Our new colony of 15 juvenile brine shrimp will be fed a few teaspoons of this green water and once it's gone, a new teaspoon will be fed. Since brine shrimp reproduce quickly, we will have at least 30 brine shrimp in about a month. The video below is of the tiny brine shrimp larva swimming in our tiny tank.
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