Water bodies in which requirements of specific salinity levels

Although our results are towards the contrary, past studies suggest that the Artemia species have swarming patterns which show that they have specific preference for darker areas and they thrive only in water bodies in which requirements of specific salinity levels, temperature and light regimes are present (Gulbrandsen 659). Moreover Artemia species require very specific habitat requirements as far as ionic content or salinity level of the water bodies in which they thrive are concerned (Camargo et al 1). This may be difficult to reproduce in the laboratory. Although in our trials, care was taken to maintain temperature and identical salinity levels in all replicates of the trials so as not to allow them to act as confounding factors in the results, but our attempts were crude as the size of the basin, light and heat from the bulb might have restricted the movement of the organisms. Moreover all organisms were not of the same size and chosen randomly which might have confounded the results further. In addition as the experiments allowed an acclimatization period of just 30 seconds, it might have been too less for a genuine movement of the organisms to have taken place according to preference for darker spots. Moreover the short observation period of two minutes could be too less and recording of data is also subject to human error. In my opinion, if a properly designed, compartmentalized box is used where there are no chances of light scattering into the other, and if a longer duration of acclimatization period is permitted i.e. for hours or at least a day, the results could have been different. Scope for human error can be eliminated by using a video camera to record the movement of organisms in carefully designed equipment which provides scope for swarming to the Artemia organisms. The recordings can then be analyzed by modern software and statistical tools to identify the tendency of Artemia organisms as far as preference for light or dark areas are concerned.