Maybe - but which is the apples and oranges when you use research according to needs of marine larvae and the needs of adult fishes or the content of nearly hatched naups with the content of adult artemia from its natural habit? You may be right - you may be wrong - but your way of argue does not back up your statement that
If you wrote " not enriched artemia naups as a sole diet for many marine larvae is lethal in the long term" I would be with you - but we did not discuss the rearing of marine larvae with artemia naups - we discuss feeding subadult and adult fish with adult frozen wild artemia. IMO - This is often how myths will be created and conserved - findings in one situation is carbon copied to a whole different situation.
I have feed my 6 years old aquarium wit with only frozen adult artemia and freshwater cyclops the whole time it has been up and running. In two of the public aquariums I have work in - frozen adult artemia and frozen mysis have been 98 % of the feeding for plus 10 years. I have not seen any trace of nutrition defiency or or premature death. Instead I have seen fishes that grow in a rate that correspond to their natural grow rate or slight faster and have a very good colouration. Compare these two fishes - same species - one been in my aquarium for 2 years - one less than 2 months. Two photos with different focus. Guess whom is who. The paler. new one has grown much slower in the wild compared with mine older one that have been in my aquarium for more than 2 years - you can see it on the proportion between the eyes and the body size. A fish eye tends to grow in the the same rate regardless of the nutrient intake (read body grow rate). The deeper colouration of my old fish is probably due to the high astaxanthin content of fresh water cyclops but wild adult artemia is known to contain astaxanthin too
But let us agree that we disagree in this matter
Sincerely Lasse
Lasse,
In your example you said you also feed cyclops and mysids. Those both counter the lack of HUFA's in the brine shrimp. The question was brine shrimp as a sole diet, and that will kill fish eventually.
Jay