Use of agriculture by-products (brans and meal) as food for Artemia franciscana (Kellogg, 1906) and effects on performance and biochemical compositions

Aquaculture needs to provide live food such as Artemia and one of the most important issues in A. franciscana rearing, is a food supply. The instar I nauplii were fed in seven treatments including Wheat bran, Rice bran, Soy-meal and algae (Dunaliella salina). For each treatment calculated growth rate, survival percentage, and body composition. At the reproductive period, 35 pairs were individually isolated from each treatment and transferred to 50 mL Falcon tubes in which the reproduction of females were monitored until their deaths. The result showed that in Artemia fed by the agricultural by-product, rice bran (10.71±0.80) and wheat bran (10.82±0.32) obtained the highest growth after control group (12.93±0.16), and the highest survival observed in control (56.00±1.76). Most of the offspring were observed in control (896.83±50.27) and wheat bran (880.37±43.88), but there was no statistical difference between them. Although A. franciscana was fed with rice bran similar to the control group in terms of body protein, Artemia was fed with wheat bran, significantly increased in body protein. According to the results of this study, it can be concluded that using wheat -and rice bran could be replaced about 90 percent of algae and kept the quality of culturing A. franciscana at best.