Disinfection of Nauplii of Artemia franciscana by Ozonation

Abstract The use of ozone to improve water quality in recirculation aquaculture systems is widespread. In these same systems, the use of brine shrimp Artemia spp. as the first food item for larval fish is also very common. The potential of brine shrimp to inoculate culture water with pathogenic bacteria is well understood, and the increasing availability of ozone makes it reasonable to consider ozone as a potential disinfectant of brine shrimp. In this study, brine shrimp nauplii were exposed to ozone (0.75 g/h) for various periods (10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 min). Survival of nauplii was greater than 90% in all but the 30-min exposure (84.4%), and bacterial reduction was nearly 100% for all exposures. Ozone, because of its demonstrated potential to disinfect brine shrimp without causing significant mortality, is a viable alternative to chemical disinfection of nauplii before feeding to larval fish.