Dunaliella salina

[Butcher333]

This seems like the best option for my question. Not sure if it is a nuisance or not. Besides a scarce few places that appear to be selling past I was wondering why there are no online sellers of live Dunaliella salina. It is a native brine shrimp food and sourcing it should be pretty simple considering how large the great salt lake in Utah is. It’s actually frustrating though that live cultures are not sold. Is this stuff a monster and I’m just not aware of this fact yet? Does anyone have any advice or knowledge of this biflagellate and or why live cultures are not very common. Thanks.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Hmmm....my lab actually cultured it for feeding to various temperate water pelagic organisms (starfish larvae, Schizocardium californicum, etc.). You could also check the Nutrition and Fish Breeding forums as well.

From what I understand, while Dunaliella is a good microalgae, there are other, better microalgaes available. Rhodomonas has a higher ARA (arachidonic acid) content, which makes it better for a lot of invertebrates like clams and starfish. Pavlova's got a balanced DHA/EPA ratio, while Nannochloropsis and Isochrysis have high levels of EPA and DHA respectively (or vice versa, I always get the two mixed up). Tetraselmis has potentially antibacterial properties. And so on and so forth.

I will say, that Dunaliella's a very bullet-proof algae. It would eat up all the nutrients I gave it, then sit patiently bubbling away while I had to babysit the Rhodomonas next to it. At least, in fairly sterile lab conditions (we didn't wear hazmat suits, but the culture water was autoclaved prior to use).

 

[Butcher333]

Thanks for replying. I wanted to culture it for my brine shrimp because it is the preferred food stuff and wanted to compare a culture of brine on it compared to non native alternatives. I figured that regardless of the fact that it is a non specific consumer, I might have better and more manageable cultures on its native preferred food. The same as for the native bacteria’s also From the lake. I’m at the point that it seems silly trying all the alternatives. (Egg yoke, yeast, Powdered Spirulina, Etc) when I could simply provide a living and native condition where control over the water should be easier and bacteria that are part of their natural biome.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Ooooh, an experiment! Tag me when you end up starting it, I love hearing about this type of stuff. It'll be interesting to hear how they do when only the foodstuff is changed.

Hmm...I think it would be hard to get the haloarchaea that are native to the lake. Aside from spores that may be present on the cysts. I'm also skeptical about the competitive ability of extremophiles in general (yes, they can survive in this one specific, harsh environment, but does that mean they can thrive in other environments in competition with other microbes?).

 

[Butcher333]

In regards to the haloarchaea. I intend to create the environmental conditions from there native environment. Competition from other bacteria shouldn’t be a problem under these extreme conditions. Is there more extreme Extremophiles native to this lake?

 

[ichthyogeek]

I'm not very familiar with the salt lake biome unfortunately.

Why would you want to mimic the extreme salinity of the salt lakes? Research has shown that at lower salinities, brine shrimp actually produce live young, as opposed to cysts, which would assist in brine shrimp growout.

 

[Butcher333]

Health of the culture I guess. I feel that the reason sustaining a culture of Artemia can be so problematic is that we are using an environment that exposes them to bacteria they are not accustomed to and the algae that dominate are harder for them to consume and different nutrient profiles. I could try pastes which are hard to find amazingly but live food would not foul the water.
” Artemia is a ubiquitous genus of small halophilic crustaceans living in salt lakes (such as Great Salt Lake) and solar salterns that can exist in water approaching the precipitation point of NaCl (340 g/L)[16][17] and can withstand strong osmotic shocks due to its mitigating strategies for fluctuating salinity levels, such as its unique larval salt gland and osmoregulatory capacity.”WIKI”
Feeding them alternative foods is fouling up my cultures.
I was just curious I guess. One of the most consumed algae’s. So hard to find. So little online about it, except in large industrial scale production.
A sample of the sediment from the GSL would be nice. I may have to settle for the live culture I found for schools.
If the LFS’s carried quality artemia that didn’t die quickly and have fungus and bacteria killing them off, I probably wouldn’t bother. I’m a bit obsessive and this is the latest to catch me sadly.

 

[Butcher333]

Does anybody know without driving down to the Great Salt Lake personally how a person can come into possession of samples of the lake. I have spent hours upon hours trying to locate something similar to live sand for the GSL so that I can culture the native algae’s and bacterial species and am baffled. #reefsquad

Or where I should post this question. Thanks.

 

[ichthyogeek]

You could...ask somebody in the Utah forum, preferably who lives near the salt lakes? Or friendly members of the church of LSD? You could also reach out to your local(well, most nearby) college/university and ask their microbiology/limnology/biology professors about advice on how to do so?

 

[Butcher333]

Thanks for some direction. My brain hurts how difficult this has proved to be. One of the largest lakes in the world and an amazing one at that and you’d think I was trying to steal intellectual property by trying to collect a sample of its contents. There are two companies on the lake and I run into the same dilemma. I just can’t imagine having to drive 24 hours round trip for a couple sample jars.

 

[ichthyogeek]

I'm interested to know why you think that it's similar to stealing IP, and what that might have to do with two companies being on the lake (also, how can a company be located on a lake???)

On the other hand, I can see how taking water from an important lake like the GSL might be considered illegal/impertinent...lots of legal stuff that you might run into.

Have you considered looking into research papers that detail the microbes native to the lake, and contacting the authors of said papers to see if you can get a sample from them?

 

[Butcher333]

I'm interested to know why you think that it's similar to stealing IP, and what that might have to do with two companies being on the lake (also, how can a company be located on a lake???)

On the other hand, I can see how taking water from an important lake like the GSL might be considered illegal/impertinent...lots of legal stuff that you might run into.

Have you considered looking into research papers that detail the microbes native to the lake, and contacting the authors of said papers to see if you can get a sample from them?

I meant that as in IP is guarded and not available to the public and owned, therefore possession of the lakes contents would be theft. I meant that it would seem as though the lakes or the 2 companies that are located on the lake (their location) do not sell samples of the lake. I can buy live rock from KP Aquatics which is harvested from the ocean and it is teaming with life from the ocean. I can culture any aspects of the live rock. I can create a piece of the ocean in a tank. It’s what we all do here on reef2reef.

If it was a small lake with limited and or endangered specimens then I could understand it’s contents being guarded. It is however one of the largest lakes in the world and despite the fact that certain entities might closely control their harvesting of the brine cysts and or brine shrimp to aquaculture, I am confused why they do not sell anything like I’m interested in. A living sample of the lake. It’s just odd.

I have researched the microbes native to the lake. This is why I am fascinated with it and want a small GSL tank. This would be much simpler that trying to source each living thing separately and combining them. It would be much simpler to just scoop up a jar full from the lake and have a little of everything.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Hmm...it might just be that there's minimal demand, or at least, not enough demand to be commercially viable (profit margin is high enough)? I agree that it would be far simpler for you if you could just get an AIO package for species native and endemic to the lake. But sometimes that's just not how business works.

 

[Butcher333]

I have enlisted the help of some travelers (family) who will be making a trip to collect specimens of sediment, containers of water from both the North and South portions and salt crusts with primarily green and primarily pink colorations along with a few 5 gallon pails of salt without any special characteristics. This should provide me with all the biome starter cultures I need. I can’t wait.

 

[khinch]

Hi @Butcher333, I realise this is an old thread, but how did you get on?

I am in the UK and my son wants to keep brine shrimp as pets, but I'm struggling to keep colonies alive longer than 4-6 weeks. I wondered if a healthy growth of Dunaliella might help them thrive.