The Artemio rearing set looks to revolutionise the way fishkeepers feed their early-stage fry. I'd call it almost the complete deal, as though it comes with the necessary hardware it lacks the salt and eggs required.
You get the build quality and assurance expected from a JBL product. Components are well packed, not muddled, and come with multi-lingual instruction booklet.
Guesswork is taken out of the equation, with a clear indication of volume on the conical flask. The instructions are comprehensive as how to set up and dosing both salt and eggs accordingly is well covered.
The ingenious 'top-down' air flow design removes the traditional fumbling involved with harvesting your Artemia. Air goes in the top, water and nauplii come out of the bottom — just the way it should be.
The pump provides adequate air flow and the smooth conical design stops any artemia being trapped and wasted inside. Seals at the top and a fitting lid ensure that splashing is a thing of the past, and once the things have hatched there’s not only a collecting pot for water underneath the easily accessible tap but also an Artemia sieve to strain off the nauplii.
The set-up is very much the solution to many a breeder’s food supply problems.
However, there’s no mention in the instructions about lighting requirement and this is essential to trigger the hatching process of artemia, decapsulated or not.
This is not difficult to create yourself — just using a bright torch on the freshly introduced eggs for an hour or so will do the job — but it would be nice to see an option for a fitted light in future models. This would considerably increase yields.
Overall, this is a superb piece of kit and at £43.95 represents a huge step in accessible fry-rearing technology. Install a light and watch the brineshrimp flow!
Extra stands and cones can be purchased for £24.95 each, and air supply can be run in line with the addition of a gang valve, although this is not supplied, and a larger air pump will be required.
Wall mounted, this makes the Artemio system an unobtrusive way to produce large quantities of baby brine shrimp.
Price: £43.95