Hatching Brine Shrimp

[Sean J]

Hey guys and girls...

I know alot of you hatch your own Brine Shrimp. I managed to hatch some out over the last couple of days, but here's the question...

How do you prevent unhatched eggs getting into the tank you're trying to feed? How do you syphon egg casings out and get the BS to stay? Does it harm your fish if they eat the shells?

Where can you buy good amounts of the eggs?

And finally, how much do you feed at one time? I fed some today for the 1st time and the fish went ballistic for them!

Thanks

Sean

[Sean J]

Nobody?

[Zafgak]

Hi Slagter, We run 7 2litre brine shrimp hatcheries 24x7. Actually it is a 2l cooldrink bottle containing about 1l of water..

First when you siphon your eggs out, we put the bottle in a darkish room and shine a light into the mi-bottom of the bottle. The brine shrimp then collect around the light. So now the hatched eggs are floating at the top, the brine shrimp are in the middle bottom section and the unhatched are right at the bottom. We then siphon out the BS being careful not to suck up the unhatched eggs into the BS. The floating ones are too far away from the siphon to be a prob. The few unhatched and hatched eggs that do get in have not caused us any problems so far.. I believe that they can cause digestive problems but the fish tend to ignore them anyway.

We buy our eggs from prof Dirk in 450g amounts. 450g Lasts us about 6-8 weeks.

Brine shrimp will live in the aquarium for extended periods (+-48 hours) so what is not eaten at the feeding is eaten later. We split 1 litre of BS between 5x1.2m, 7x600mm, 2x500mm cube and 4x450mm tanks. We feed twice a day.

[speedz]

fish absolutely love brine shrimp, the best part is seeing fry with red tummy's after feeding them brine shrimp. At home my cat is intrigued by the airstone in the BS container and always wants to "investigate" whats going on. So if you have another pet just watch out for that

[Ferryman]

can i ask how you guys manage the temps in those many bottle gavin? or do you keep all the bottles in a tank and heat the tank or something?

any tips as to what would be an easy to maintain small hatchery for someone like me who only has my two already setup tanks? i'd like to try an treat the fish a bit as well...?

[veegal]

Ferryman our fish room is really humid so we are now at the stage where we don't need to use heaters - YEAH! What you can do is hang the brineshrimp container so that it hangs in your fish tank - it doesn't look pretty, but it works.

Also, before everyone hounds the Prof - he is out of stock of bs eggs at the moment.....

[Ferryman]

if i were to use a small bottle, like a buddy coke bottle or bonaqua or somesuch, turn it upside down, drill a hole in the lid, stick tube with an airstone through, cut the tips out from the "base feet" (it usually has about five points) so the air can escape, and add some way of throwing the eggs in, id be able to hatch them with that container hidden in a corner of my tank, now, question is, how would i go about getting some out and feeding it to fish, without pouring it all out and cleaning it :hmmmm:

[Sean J]

Use air line tubing to suck them out.

Thanks for all the info Zaf and Vee!! It's really going to help in the future. Just need to find a good supply of BS eggs now.

[Altum]

You may pm me for Artemia cysts.
I have just a few cans left over before I next import more.

[Sean J]

I'll definitely get from you Altum. After the wedding though...

[neilh]

You can try shops that stock Sera. Sera package cysts as well

[Sean J]

I've tried them, but never had any success. Plus they are way too expensive for such small amounts.

[Mongwopman]

i just use a bottle, half filled with tank water, add 2 teaspoons aquarium salt, half a teaspoon (probably less actually) BS eggs and then airate for a day ro 2, then i just use a syringe with some air tubing to suck them out.

The light next to the bottle trick works to get them to one spot for easier sucking!

[Ferryman]

don't you heat the water at all? or do you also have a very warm humid room or something?

[Mongwopman]

nope, i dont heat my water, only drawback is it takes longer for them to actually hatch!

[Ferryman]

ahh, good to know. atleast they still hatch...
got a desklight directed at the bottle maybe, or does the room tem at least stay somewhere above 20degrees or such?

[Mongwopman]

The heat from a desk lamp should be hundreds for you!