Pilot Scale Production of Artemia Biomass from Kelambakkam Salt Ponds

This book has been cataloged the outdoor culture of Artemia two earthen ponds, one served as a control (pond-A) another served as experimental pond (pond-B). The experimental pond-B was manured with chicken and cow dung to enhance the primary productivity. Whereas the pond-A was not provided with any supplemental feed except naturally occurring green algae like Tetraselmis and Dunaliella. The culture period lasted for three months and which harvested a total quantity of 7.448 Kg WW cyst in the pond-A. Similarly, the pond-B had a maximum quantity of 15.012 Kg WW cyst harvested during April, 2010. The total biomass quantity yielded in the pond-A was 6.697 Kg WW and correspondingly pond-B registered a total biomass quantity of 31.386 Kg WW. The obtained results clearly indicated that different supplemental feeds had a significant effect on the growth and total yields, and also improved the proximate composition of Artemia biomass, which are crucial parameters for production purposes. The non-essential amino acid profiles of cysts and fresh Artemia showed predominance of leucine and isoleucine. Over all the cysts harvested from pond-B showed a high level of essential amino acids.