Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India

Comparative field evaluation of high-saline probiotics on Artemia franciscana cyst yield in earthen ponds across seasonal production cycles

Volume 68 Issue 1

M. Samayakannan, N. Vignesh Raja, A. Angela Mercy, G. Sathya, M. Kalaiselvam, S. Kandan and A. Abdul Rahman

doi:10.6024/jmbai.2026.68.1.2657-09

Abstract

Artemia culture systems accumulate organic waste from uneaten feed, moults, and faeces, increasing organic load and ammonia levels, deteriorating water quality. Unlike most aquaculture systems, water exchange is impractical in Artemia farming due to the risk of stock escape. Therefore, alternative strategies such as probiotics are used as a sustainable solution for water-quality management. While most commercial probiotics are developed for low-salinity shrimp and fish culture (0–35 ppt), their suitability for hyper-saline Artemia systems remains largely untested. This study evaluated two commercial probiotics: Treatment 1 (TR1), Probiotic X (a Bacillus-based consortium), and Treatment 2 (TR2), Probiotic Y (Marinobacter sp.), over two production cycles-winter (Jan–Apr) and summer (Jun–Oct). Performance was assessed using daily cyst release patterns, reproductive phaseduration, total wet cyst yield, and unit area production (kg/ha/crop). Probiotic application significantly prolonged the reproductive phase under hyper-saline conditions. In winter, cyst production in control ponds ceased by 61 days of culture (DOC), whereas probiotic-treated ponds continued until 90 DOC. In summer, control ponds stopped cyst production by 68 DOC, while treated ponds extended cyst release up to 129 DOC. Unit area production followed similar trends; TR1 increased production by 114% (winter) and 304% (summer) over the control, while TR2 achieved increases of 70% and 126%, respectively. Although probiotic Y is more halo-tolerant than probiotic X, probiotic X consistently outperformed probiotic Y and untreated controls, demonstrating thatBacillus-based probiotics effectively mitigate water-quality deterioration and enhance cyst production in large-scale, hyper-saline Artemia culture systems where water exchange is limited.

Keywords

Artemia culture, cyst yield, high-saline probiotics, water quality management

Date : 29-05-2026