Sunday, January 1, 2012

Glad I'm not a brine shrimp

My brine shrimp are growing nicely.  So nicely in fact, that I have a few adults including a mating pair!  Generation 2 should be along soon!
So, brine shrimp do what is called "mate guarding"- the male uses its claspers on its head to hold on to the female above the uterus and they just hang out together for a while... up to several days in fact.  This is a pre- and post-mating ritual.  The pair can swim around faster together than apart, so this act actually serves to help the female and her eggs become well nourished (brine shrimp are filter feeders and must move around in order to get food).  It's thought that females prefer larger males so they will help the pair swim faster.  The other main reason for this behavior is that the male is kind of staking his claim- as long as he's holding on to the female, that prevents any other males from mating with her.





I think I already mentioned once that brine shrimp are pretty amazing in that they can give live birth from eggs in the mother's body (ovoviviparous birth) OR lay eggs, based on the weather and conditions of their habitat.  Through the summer when it's warmer, they give live birth.  When it's getting close to winter time, they lay eggs which become hard cysts which remain viable through the winter and as soon as the conditions are right again, they will hatch.  Pretty sweet, huh?  I don't know of any other organisms that can do that.  If you know of any, please let me know.

For more info, visit this site where I learned some new and enlightening things about brine shrimp mating, yippee!  This is also the site the picture comes from.  http://www.eurovolvox.org/Protocols/PDFs/Artemia1.3_UK_eng.pdf

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