Below is an analysis of the brine shrimp commonly known as the Artemia Salina by the scientific name. The Brine Shrimp can be traced back in the ancient days, the days of Sumerian in Mesopotamia and their attempt to domesticate animals as well as finding alternative sources of food other than hunting and gathering. The Artemia was discovered during the early man fishing escapades. The Artemia are seawater animals that are found in the inland salt-water lakes but ironically, most of them cannot be found in oceans. The highest population of Artemia is in Dead Sea where there is high concentration of salty water. They have a conspicuous ability of surviving in high salinity levels where no other type of fish can survive.
Abstract
The hypothesis of this experiment is to determine whether more alkalinity meant that more brine shrimps would be hatched or not. However, from the experiment an increase in alkalinity may not result to an increase in the number of brine shrimp larvae hatched.
Discussion
The Brine shrimp, which is also known as the Sea monkey, has been used in the modern world as food for fish and is of high quality because it can be grown using the aquaculture in the laboratories. In addition, the aqua culture can be prepared to suit its perfect conditions for multiplication where their number increases within a very short time. Sea salt is required when preparing this solution and ordinary salt is usually not recommended because its concentration and density differ from that of the sea salt.
Water is prepared by adding bicarbonate sodium to neutralize it. Then it is heated to about sixty-four degree Celsius so that the cysts may hatch faster. Salt is then added little by little and stirred until it dissolves completely to form a solution. A source of light is placed near the beaker for the observation required to be clear. A pump with a hosepipe helps to aerate the beaker because a lot of air is required during this process. The brine shrimp cysts are put in the beaker and the eggs hatch after a period of fifteen to twenty hours.
To harvest the brine shrimp larvae, which have just been hatched a very bright source of light is placed at the top of the beaker. The larvae that are attracted to the source of light float at the top and they can be harvested to be used as food for the fish in the aquarium. The aqua culture brine shrimps has been the most common type of food, which is fed to fish in the aquariums due to the amount of time and resources spent in their preparation.
The ability to survive in very alkaline environment, which other aquatic animals cannot survive, has been hesitation in classifying the brine shrimp as an aquatic animal. It has, however, been seen as an indicator of highly alkaline waters. As an indicator, its presence in certain water bodies implies the kind of water species, which can be found in such waters as well as the kind of species, which cannot be found in such ecological conditions.
As an indicator species, the Brine shrimps presence may be a pin pointer of artificial activism, which has led to either increase in the alkalinity levels of the water body, or its absence may indicate activities that have led to decrease in the levels of alkaline found in the water bodies.
The Brine shrimp has also been used in space exploration to find out whether the outer spaces are fit for survival as well as how ultra violet rays affect the Artemia. It was found that the brine shrimp larvae are very sensitive to the cosmic rays especially the ultra violet rays from the sun. However, rare as well as other types of radiations, which are denser than ultraviolet rays, can harm them.
The Brine shrimp is very critical in modern day experiments of ecological indication as it has been used as an indicator of changes in the environment. For example, the effects of global warming causes extinction of the brine shrimps from the water bodies.
However, the artificial manufacturing of these seafood otherwise known as the sea monkeys, are the nutritious foods for the fish in the fishponds. They have helped fish farmers because they are readily available. The manner in which brine shrimps larvae are manufactured and maintained is very cheap and lasts for less than one hour. This makes established farmers with the necessary knowledge to produce the low cost foods themselves. The brine shrimps are also used in various laboratories to test alkalinity of some solutions because; the brine shrimp cysts do not take long to hatch.
Vocabularies
Brine is salty water, which is more salty than the seawater.
Aqua culture refers to a bio solution prepared in the laboratory for the purposes of making some inferences.