Bio-encapsulation

Bio-encapsulation. Since the early '90s, the technique of bio-encapsulation has been used to enrich brine shrimp with essential fatty acids that are ordinarily missing in Artemia. This technique can be extended to get drugs into the intestines of fishes. Like all saltwater organisms, brine shrimp must take in quantities of water to maintain osmotic balance. (In freshwater, the osmotic situation is reversed, and freshwater fishes drink little.) So, medication for Hexamita or for Camallanus nematodes is put into the brine, and after two hours or more, when the first brine shrimp begin to die, they are rinsed off and fed to fishes. This great technique was written up in an article in F.A.M.A., by Dr. Beverly A. Dixon, in the June 1998 issue.
The fishes should be hungry when fed bioencapsulated medications. Otherwise they are likely to spit out the brine shrimp, and avoid them for some time afterwards.