Zeigler Bros., Inc., in cooperation with Priyanka Enterprises, successfully launched EZ Artemia Ultra on March 29, 2022, at Golden Bay Resorts Koovathur, Tamil Nadu, India. The launch of the third generation of EZ Artemia was attended by over 50 participants representing 32 big hatcheries from the Chennai coastal region.
Originally developed as a synthetic substitute for Artemia, this complete and balanced diet has become a global standard for the industry, the company said. EZ Artemia Ultra formulation exceeds the attractability, digestibility and nutritional value of Artemia nauplii. Over the years, the best ingredients have been incorporated into highly digestible microparticle matrices, precisely manufactured and sized for maximum consumption. The microencapsulation process protects sensitive pigments, fatty acids, enzymes, vitamins and other nutrients in a soft moist easy-to-consume matrix. Shelf-stable, convenient, biosecure and cost-effective, sales of EZ Artemia have grown over the years with many hatcheries significantly reducing their use of Artemia nauplii and some eliminating Artemia nauplii completely.
Over the past few years, Zeigler R&D has improved the formulation to incorporate new powerful ingredients while removing terrestrial proteins. The second area of advancement was in the manufacturing process, enabling the incorporation of more nutrients into each microcapsule, improving digestibility, and making the capsules more buoyant while maintaining water stability. The third area of focus was on demonstrating performance improvement. Product development efforts focused on feeding EZ Artemia as the sole diet for PL 2-12, assuring maximum performance and improved larval fitness and gut health as demonstrated by higher survival and growth.
The event was hosted by Balaraman Radakrishnan, newly appointed general manager of Priyanka Enterprises. Mr. Balaraman is a seasoned technical and sales professional with more than 30 years of experience in the field of shrimp aquaculture for both hatcheries and farms.
Mark Rowel Napulan, sales manager of Zeigler Bros., Inc. for Asia led the event with his presentation entitled EZ Artemia Ultra, the best just got better. Napulan emphasized the importance of increased biosecurity and understanding potential pathogen carriers to produce clean post-larvae. He believes that there is a need to balance the risk between using live and fresh feeds versus post-larvae productivity.
“After three years of continued research and development work at our Z-ARC (Zeigler Aquaculture Research Center) in Florida, I am very excited to present to you the key distinguishing features of this improved product. This diet now comes with much-improved buoyancy making the particles remain suspended in the water column for an indefinite period with good aeration, maximizing productivity from flat as well as parabolic larval systems. We have incorporated our special blends of Rescue probiotics into the micro-capsules to promote gut health and help protect shrimp against pathogenic Vibrio. In the liquid fraction, we have incorporated our Remediate water quality probiotic blend designed for waste digestion and toxic gas control for a healthier tank environment. The formulation includes V-Pak, Zeigler’s immune enhancement feed additive for stress and disease tolerance,” Nauplan said.
From left to right: R. Balaraman, Mark Rowel Napulan, Muthukaruppan, VP AISHA, Padmanabha Reddy, Priyanka Enterprises, Panchu, Uni Bio SPF Monodon hatchery, Ravikumar, Golden Marine Harvest Group of Hatcheries, Kalraj, president AISHA, Tamil Nadu Chapter & MD Royal Shrimp Hatchery.
EZ Artemia Ultra users can adopt different feeding strategies depending on their experience in using liquids. Some hatchery managers have found that continued feeding of EZ Artemia Ultra after discontinuation of Artemia nauplii helped reduce cannibalism and resulted in significantly higher survival.
As a partial Artemia replacement, laboratory and field studies have demonstrated improved lipid deposition, growth and survival compared to control tanks fed with 100% Artemia nauplii. In addition, production costs were reduced, and profits were increased, the company said.
“EZ Artemia Ultra has also been demonstrated to successfully replace 100% of the Artemia in the diet, eliminating the need for the additional capital and labor expense associated with Artemia hatching systems. Complete replacement of Artemia significantly reduces the risk of Vibrio and microsporidian contamination, while improving the gut health of the larvae and the environmental health of the larval rearing tank,” the company concluded.
