New Technology developed by Tuticorin Directorate of Fisheries Extension

A technology developed by the Directorate of Fisheries Extension, Tuticorin for mass production of artemia, a live food for ornamental fish, is rendering value-addition to salt pan owners.

The new procedure was recently tested successfully at the salt pan of Ayya Prince, owner of Sri Sankara Salt Farm, at Puthalam in Kanyakumari district.

The Directorate, coming under the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, gave away indigenous strains of artemia to the entrepreneur after he was imparted training in outdoor culture of the organism.

J. Daniel Jameson, Director of the Directorate, told The Hindu here that Mr. Prince was advised to limit the stocking density of artemia to 2 lakh for every 1,000-square metre plot.

The salinity variation of the water was initially kept between 70 and 80 parts per thousand (ppt). The artemia was then fed with Dunaniella, a green algae, found in the salt pans. “As the salinity rises to 130 ppt once the pan was exposed to radiation from the sunlight, the artemia start laying eggs,” Dr. Jameson said.

Mr. Prince harvested 3.5 kg of artemia cyst (containing seven crore cysts), which fetched him Rs. 3,500. Artemia contains 53 per cent of protein and 15 per cent of fat.

The culture of artemia would purify the brine media in the pans as the organism fed on suspended matters, waste and live planktons of 50 micron in size, helping the entrepreneurs produce salt free of impurities.