Effect of temperature on the hatching success of the brine shrimps

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Effect of temperature on the hatching success of the brine shrimps

Introduction:

        The aim for this investigation is to observe the effect of temperature on the hatching success of the brine shrimps and that the young shrimps will hatch at faster rate in 20-25°C because this is where the brine shrimps body system (enzymes and hatching processes possibly included) mostly response to the effect of temperature.

Background knowledge:

        Brine shrimps are small, salt water crustaceans; the adults are about 8 mm in length. They are relatively easy to keep in the laboratory and will produce dormant egg cyst that hatch to produce  young shrimp larvae.

        These are all covered later in the sections hatching, enriching and on-growing.

Factors that can cause your culture to crash are: over population, causing low oxygen levels, over feeding creating high levels of dissolved nutrients resulting in poor water quality, bottom and floating debris hampering movement and therefore ingestion and starvation—lack of food.

        Brine shrimps are found all around the world in salt lakes. These are places, often

in hot countries, where rivers end in a lake instead of going to the sea. The sea is salty

because it has had salts flowing from the land into it for hundreds of millions of years.

        Brine shrimps have a head, a middle (thorax) and a tail (abdomen). Brine shrimps usually

move about on their backs, upside down with their leafy-legs uppermost, unlike other

more familiar crustaceans such as woodlice. The eleven pairs of leafy-legs are used as

filters, for swimming along in the water and as gills. On the front of the head are two little

black eyes. There are also two small antennae which stick out forward. These are hard to

see without magnification. These are sensory structures for feeling the environment ahead.

Further back are two large antennae.

        Young shrimp larvae are called nauplii (nor-plee-ee).They grow up in about two to four weeks. When nearly fully grown the sexes may be told apart quite easily. The females are brown/red in colour and a have a bundle of eggs in a brood-pouch half way along the body. In the brood pouch eggs are fertilised and protected by the mother. When males and females are adult

they pair up.

        There are several parameters that will effect the hatching, growth rates and survival of artemia (brine shrimp), although they can tolerate quite vast water quality conditions and will survive in fresh water for up to 4-5 hours, they do grow and hatch best when kept as close as possible to optimum keeping requirements.

         For this investigation, it is also necessary to consider the physical factors  that  might have affected the hatching of the brine shrimps. This whether the artificial temperature water baths that will be used for the experiment is enough for the brine shrimp to hatch as it is known to be a sub-topical species, also the salinity of the water may varied that the hatching success may not possibly adapt to it compared with natural hatching in the sea water.

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Ethical Issues:

        Brine shrimps are very delicate, they are living organisms and therefore must take care not to harm them when it is being handled. For this reason, the egg cysts that hasn't hatched and the hatched larvae that had survived in the experiment will immediately be placed at the recovery aquarium for future survival possibilities.

Independent and Dependent Variables:

        

        The independent variable for this investigation is the variation in the temperature where the eggs are going to be incubated and dependent variable is the amount of egg cyst of the ...

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