1.1This practice describes procedures for hatching, harvesting, and testing the acceptability of brine shrimp nauplii for use as a food for certain fish and invertebrate species that are used in aquatic toxicity tests. The term “brine shrimp” refers to all species in the genus Artemia (1) ² although this practice specifically deals only with those species for which cysts (encysted embryos) are commercially available.

1.2These procedures are applicable to all brine shrimp nauplii that are obtained by incubating commercially available cysts. With appropriate processing, cysts collected by noncommercial harvesters can be subjected to these same procedures.

1.3Modification of these procedures might be justified by special needs or circumstances.

1.4This practice is organized as follows:

	Section
Referenced Documents	2
Terminology	3
Summary of Practice	4
Significance and Use	5
Hazards	6
Obtaining Cysts	7
Selecting a Source	7.1
Storage	7.2
Hatching Cysts	8
Harvesting Nauplii	9
Testing Nauplii	10
Feeding Assay	10.1
Chemical and Physical Measurements	10.2
Using Nauplii	11
Report	12

1.5 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use. Specific hazard statements are given in Section 6.