1 LIBYAN JOURNAL OF MARINE SCIENCE (2005) 10: 1- 8

REPRODUCTIVE AND LIFESP AN CHARACTERISTICS OFARTEMIA FROM LffiYAN ABU KAMMASH SABKHA

Mohamed o. EI-Magsodi 1;Hassan M. EI-Ghebli 1;Mohamed A. Enbaya2Mohammed Hamza 1; Usama A. Drebika 1; and Patrick Sorgeloos3

1 Marine Biology Research Centerp.a.Box: 30830, Tajura, Libya

Tel. +218-21-3690001, Fax. +218-21-3690002.E-mail: magsodi@yahoo.co.uk.

2 Department of Aquacu1ture,Faculty of Agriculture AIfateh University.

3 Artemia Reference Center, State University of GhentRozier 44, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.

Keywords: Artemia, Lifespan Characteristics, Offspring, Broods, Libya.

ABSTRACT

The reproductive performance of the Abu Kammash Artemia was tested inthree salinities (100, 140 and '180 ppt) of Instant Ocean@solution at constanttemperature of 25:f:loC. Six reproductive and four lifespan characteristics werestudied, they were: offspring per brood, brood per female, offspring per femaleper day during the reproductive period, days between broods, percentoffspring encysted,total offspringper female,pre-reproductiveperiod, reproductiveperiod, post-reproductiveperiod and totallifespan. .

The resultsmdicated that Abu KammashArtemia shows a preferenceto high salinity.The reproductive and lifespan characteristicshave no significant differences in'fhethree salinities (100, 140 and 180 ppt). These characteristics were found to becloser to A. tunisiana (salina). A high level of encysted offspring was observedwhich suggeststhe possibilitiesof it's commercialuse. Also it is expected that thesestudies could contribute towards the more general understanding about theproductivity of these animals, and prove helpful in developing this naturalresource in AbuKammash subkha. At the same time, it wil~provide Libya withthe opportunity to explore the practical use of the Artem.ia population fromAbu Kammash for the countryneeds.

INTRODUCTION

The brine shrimpArtemia (Crustucea:Branchiopoda)is a well-studiedorganism;however, taxonomists are still puzzled about the evolution and the phylogeneticrelationship of the populations that comprise the genus. Schlosser made the firstdescription of the brine .shrimp in 1755 on material collected from solar salt-works near Lymington,England,UK, (Kuenenand Baas-Becking,1938).Linnaeusdescribedthe brine shrimp as Cancersalinus in 1758and Leach renamedit asArtemia. saUna in 1819 (ArtOID1931). In the recent years many populations have

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2 Mohamed O. El-Maesodi et al.

been identified, and nowadays the genus Artemia comprised some bisexualspecies and super species as well as parthenogenetic populations with variousdegrees of ploidy (Browne and Bowen, 1991).

The corp.plexity of Artemia species is considered to be a unique system thatoffers many advantages for analysis of evolutionary and ecological questions.Brine shrimps are also regarded as a lifeline for the developing aquacu1tureindustry worldwide; it is used as satisfactory substitute food for larval freshwaterand marine fishes and crustaceans (Bengtson et al., 1991).

Although Artemia has 1heability to live and breed in sea water and in brackishwater, it's habitats range in salinity from 45 to 340 ppt (persoone and Sorgeloos,1980). However, it's habitat is restricted to two principal types: terminal inlandsalt lakes and coastal saltems.; both are often associated with commercial saltproduction (Browneand MacDonald, 1982). Salinity fluctuations caused byhuman activities are common in aquacu1ture systeins. In the American greatBasin of the western United States major transbasin-water diversions and otheralterations have caused salinity to increase in Mono-lakes, California, PyramidLake, Nevada, Great Salt Lake, Utah (Mason, 1967;Winkler et aI., 1977).Artemia can maintain osmotic homeostasis in elevated salinities. Increasedenergy requirement may affect other functions such as growth and reproduction(Bond 1933; Gilcbrist, 1960). Sub-lethal and lethal salinity affects on A. mQnicamay occur at salinity above 133 ppt. were shown to base caused high mortalityand hatChingfailure, beside,delaying in the reproduction and reduction in broodsize (Dana and Lenz, 1986)

Reproductive and lifespan characteristics have been intensively studied on manyorganisms and provided valuable data in understanding their life history develop-ment and adaptation strategies. Life histories 1.e.reproductive and lifespanchar-acterlsticsare best investigated by analyzing and recorcijngquantitative genetictraits of key fitness variables. Browne et al., 1984, 1991 has produced valuableresults fOImany Artemia popUlationsbelonging to various bisexual and parthe-nogenetic species. Their studies contributed to estimate the genetic and environ-mental components of the various life history characteristics and to comparethe populations for differences in their history strategies.

This study presents reproductive and lifespan characteristics of Artemia from theLibyan AbU.Karom~shsabkha.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Following ;Browne et al., (1984; 1988) the reproductive and lifespan characteristics

studies b.1clude:offspring per bro~d, brood per female, offspring per female perday dunng the reproductive peno4, days between broods~ percent offsprtngencysted total offspring per female, pre-reprodutive period (in days), reproduc-tive period (in days), past-reproductive period (in days) and total Hfespan (indays). The reproductive perfonnance of Artemia from Abu Kammash cyst bankcode number 1437 was tested in three salinities (lOO, 140'and 1&0ppt) of InstantOceanr solution at 25:i:lOC.

LIBYAN JOURNAL OF MARINE SCIENCE (200S) 10: 1- 8

REPRODUCTIVE AND LIFESPAN CHARACTERISTICS OF ARTEMlA ... 3

To obtain nauplii for culture experiments,19 cysts of Artemia from Abu Kammash(ARC code number 1437) was incubated in 800 ml Instant Ocean(r)solution of32:i:1 ppt in cylindro-conical glass cones under optimal hatching condition(Lavens and Sorgeloos, 1996). After 24 hrs the intar-Inauplii were harvested andtransferred directly into cylindro-conicalglass cones, each containing'200 freshlyhatched nauplii in 400 ml seawater.The initial animal density was one naupliusper 2 m1of culturedmedium. The experimentwas run in 3 replicatesand the animalswere fed on a mixed diet of the live alga Dunaliella tertiolectaand the yeast-basedformulated feed Lanzy Pz(rJ (INVE AquacuIture SA, Belgium), following thefeeding schedule adapted from Coutteau et ai., (1992). As soon as males wereobserved to clasp females in the culture experiments, the pairs were immediatelytransferred into 50 ml cylindro-conical plastic tubes (falcon tubes) with 50 m1of0.45 mm filtered Instant Ocean{t)solution medium of each salinity mentionedabove. A total of 50 pairs in each degree of salinity were observed daily forreproductive characteristics. Males were replaced if death occurs, while femaleswere not replaced after day four.

Theresultswere analyzedstatisticallywitha one-wayanalysisof variance(ANOVA)to find an overall affect of the treatment. Tukeys HSD test was used to detectsignificant differences among means at a significancelevel ofP<0.05.

RESULTS

The results obtained from six reproductive and four lifespan characteristics ofArtemia from Abu Karnmash cultured at three different salinity degrees aresummarizes in Table 1. Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences be-tween the three different salinity degrees .Table 1. Mean and S.d. of reproductive and lifespan characteristics of Artemia from

AbuKammashsabkha reared in threedifferentsalinities.

LIDYAN JOURNAL OF MARINE SCIENCE (2005) 10: 1- 8

Characteristics 100 ppt 140 ppt 180 ppt

Offspring per brood 41.35 = 7.30 41.42:1::6.40 45.30 = 5.15

Broods per female 5.95 :I::2.25 5.65 :!::2.65 5.10:1: L10

Offspring per female per da..y 6.80:1:5.16 7.10=4.12 7.65 = 3.14

Days betWeen brood 6.10 = 4.10 5.88:1::3.12 5.91 :I:4.20

Percent offspring ncysted 92.2:1:8.55 94.50:1::5.50 100 :I:0.00

Total offspring per female 247 = 20.12 242:1::18.10 239 :I::15.60

Female prereproductive period (days) 24.25 :I:3.20 26.10:1::3.15 25.12:1::2.20

Female reproductive period (days) 30.20:1::10.15 28.18:1::8.12 27.16 = 6.10

Female postreproductive period (days) 10.15:1:4.12 8.12 = 3.10 9.10:1::5.15

Total female lifespan (days) 64.60 :i:5.30 62.40 :!:4.15 6138 :!:4.20

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4 MohamedO. EI-Ma2sodi etal.

DISCUSSION

Salinity ranged between 100 and 180 ppt do not seem to affect the reproductiveand lifespan characteristics of Abu Kammash Artemia. The species showed thatthe optimal salinities for reproduction and lifespan characteristics were between60 to 150 ppt (Browne et al., 1991; Trintaphyllidis et al., 1995). Previous works(Browne et al., 1984,1991; Trintaphyllidis et al., 1995) showed thatA. parthenoge-netica, A. franciscana, A. tunisiana, A. urmiana and A. sinica were distinct withregard to reproductive and lifespan characteristics. Table 2 summarizes the resultsobtained from previous studies on the reproductive and lifespan characteristics at25°C and salinity ranged between 90 and 100 ppt.

Comparing the performance of Artemia from Abu Kammash with the availabledata from the literature, we may say that Artemia from Abu Kammash is closer toA. tunisiana (salina). The life histories of Artemia from Abu Kammash were lowercompared to the New W orId A. franciscana and very close to the A. tunisiana,but also closer to A. urmiana, A. sinica and also the A. persimilis. The latter fourspecies and Artemia from Abu K::Immashconsistently had the smallest broods andfewest total offspring and among the smallest number of broods per female,offspring per day per female, days between broods, female reproductive days andlength of female lifespan compared with A. franciscana and A. parthenogenetica .Abu Kammash Artemia gives a high level of encysted offspring, something thatis attractive for future commercial use. In the genus Artemia, as so far, A. franciscanaperforms much better as compared to the other bisexual species. It produces themost offspring per brood and has the longest reproductive period and lifespanamong the bisexual populations.

Most of the reproductive and lifespan traits of Abu Kammash Artemia are nearlysimilar to A. tunisiana (salina) and there are no significant differences betweenthe two (sibling) species in some reproductive characteristics, but on the otherhand it differs from A.franciscana, A. sinica, A. urmiana,and A. parthenogeneticapopulations, which well agrees with the results obtained by Beardmore andAbreu-Grobois (1983) and Abreu-Grobois (1983, 1987) who studied bisexualMediterranean Artemia populations from Spain, Italy, Tunisia and Cyprus. Theyfound high genetic similarities between these populations and consequentlygrouped them together as a species well separated from A. .franciscana~A. persimilis and A. urmiana. The present results also agrees with Triantaphyllidiset al., (1997) who indicated that allozyme and DNA polymorphisms (AFLP)revealed that the bisexual Mediterranean A.rtemia populations present high geneticsimilarities and can be grouped under the same species. But it shows that thesepopulations are well separated from all the other bisexuals A. franciscana,A. persimilis, A. urmiana and A. sinica, as well as from any parthenogeneticpopulations.

CONCLUSIONS

Artemia from Abu Kammash sabkha showed a preference to high salinity(above 100 ppt). Reproductive and lifespan characteristics have no significantdifferences in 100, 140 and 180 ppt. These characteristics were found to be about

LIBYAN JOURNAL OF MARINE SCIENCE (2005) 10: 1- 8

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Table2. Comparativereproductiveand lifespancharacteristicsofArlemia &omAbu JCammashsabkha reared in salinity of 100ppt with QthefpopuIationsstudiedbyBrownetal. (1984,1991)andTriantaphyllidisetal.. 1995.(. represents data obtained from Brown et al., 1984study reared in 90 ppl ( .. representdata obtained from Brownet al.; 1991 study reared in 90 ppt) and (... represents data obtained byTriantaDhvllidiset al.. 1995studyreuedin 100

t""I

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CharacteristicsAbu lCammAh

A. A.. I A. I A. I A. I parthenogenetica..t""IArlemla Urmiana." sin/ca. tunisiana-. franclsCfl1lQ*peTsimilis- diploid polyploid

63 41.35 43.21 55.89 27.76 94.98 80.37: 53.85 89.08-<5.95 7.20 5.50 5.65 11.82 3.91 9.37 15.22

0 6.80 13.85 It.53 8.80 23.60 31.58 35.86 16.47

I6.10 4.30 5.76 4.10 4.36 2.90 4.79 5.5392.2 SS4S 64.81 92.21 25.27 44.12 47.96 10.65.247 341 337 161 1215 293 S09 1378

0 24.25 31.25 32.50 3828 30.35 35.09 42.11 36.94"I1

30.20 .38.45 28.90 25.92 51.23 12.18 47.59 85.42

i 10.15 0 5.80 12.03 6,06 5.64 6.00 5.9564.60 69.70 6810 76.07 87.1S 57.69 86.86 12815

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6 Mohamed O. EI-Magsodi et al.

the same as to A. tunisiana (saUna). A high level of encysted offspring wasobserved suggesting the possibilities of commercial use of Artemia from AbuKammash sabkha. The data presented here could contribute to future characteri-

. zation efforts of Artemia from Abu Kammash sabkha. and may prove helpful indeveloping this natural resource.

Acknowledgements

We thank all the staff of A rtemia Reference Center, Belgium for there assistanceto fulfill this work.

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