Dataset: Artemia nauplii consumption by Americamysis bahia as a function of body length from a pilot laboratory experiment

Adult Americamysis bahia (hereafter, mysids) were purchased and shipped from Biosystems, Inc (Fort Collins, CO). Mysids were shipped acclimated to 15 ppt water salinity. Upon arrival at Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, mysids were acclimated to the experimental conditions of water temperature = 22 degrees C, and salinity = 14 ppt. Mysids were held for a minimum of 3 days prior to experimentation, during which period they were fed 1 day old Artemia nauplii ad libitum. 

Prior to experiments, mysids were fasted for 1 day to allow depuration of stomach contents and ensure mysids were actively searching for prey. During experiments, individual mysids were placed in a 1-L container with filtered, artificial seawater (Instant Ocean® Sea Salt, Blacksburg, VA) mixed to a concentration of 14 ppt. A total of 60 (Series 1) or 40 (Series 2) 1-day old Artemia nauplii were added to each container, sealed and placed on a slowly rotating, custom-made zooplankton grazing wheel. The wheel rotates very slowly around a central axis and is designed to keep plankton or zooplankton in suspension during grazing experiments. The experiment continued for 4 hours. Following each experiment, mysids placed in a petri dish and digitally measured for body length (rostrum to base of the telson) under light microscopy (CellSens imaging program, Evident Scientific). Containers were filtered using 40-micron nitex mesh and all remaining Artemia were enumerated.