Not many people know that there is also an Artemia species (brine shrimp) that is native to pure freshwater in Germany! The brine shrimp Eubranchipus grubii lives in riparian forests and forest ponds in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe.
"Mini-Expedition" on a Saturday afternoon
The southwest group of the International Rainbow Fish Association, together with JBL, initiated a small Saturday afternoon expedition to various fishing grounds on the Rhineland-Palatinate side of the Rhine, where, according to the federal Fisheries Act (§31), the catching of feeder animals is not dependent on having a fishing licence.
Mosquito larvae, cyclops & artemia
In addition to large quantities of black and a few white mosquito larvae, many water fleas as well as cyclops went into the JBL catch nets. The rare freshwater artemia were then found in a flooded forest!
Water values
Using the JBL PROSCAN water test, the water values were determined on site: Nitrite & nitrate were not detectable, even though enormous amounts of foliage were present in the water! The general and carbonate hardness were 4 °dH with a pH value of 6.8.
Live food for the aquarium?
The branchiopods, about 2 cm in size, were - unlike the mosquito larvae - too cute to be fed to our home aquarium fish. Instead we kept them in a small aquarium. With some JBL Artemio liquid algae food ( JBL ArtemioFluid ) they are really easy to care fo.
