Did you know that Aqua Dragons are called Artemia Salina, also known as brine shrimp, and are crustacea that have existed on Earth since the age of the dinosaurs?
Artemia Salina has very unique biological characteristics where their eggs can be inactive for long periods of time. They are resistant and withstand very low temperatures without water and with little oxygen. Meanwhile the embryo is dormant waiting to enter into contact with water to hatch. Of course, when introduced into water of a favourable environment, the eggs hatch and the Aqua Dragons are born measuring approximately 0.5mm.
For hatching to happen the water temperature should be between 17º and 30ºC besides very well oxygenated and in natural light. When all these variables are cared for the Aqua Dragons receive the biological wake up call to hatch. These tiny crustaceans can live in varying concentrations of salty water: salt lakes, swamps, salt mines and sometimes even in puddles.
They have a very curious behaviour. They feel an irresistible attraction to the light and swim back toward it, in a very odd way. In nature they like swimming against the current may be trained to be the best swimmers of their tank!
If you look after your little Aqua Dragons by feeding and oxygenating regularly, but always without exceeding, in about a month they will reach 1 centimetre longer and they will be ready to breed.
You’ll differentiate males and females because of their heads: if you look closely you'll see that females have small heads, while males have claspers that look like mini antlers, so their heads appear larger and quite peculiar. Do not miss their life cycle!
