Homemade Brine Shrimp Hatchery and first Fry Grow-out miniature tank.

I have mentioned a home made brine shrimp hatchery and @LilMissMurder hinted that I write an article about it. Its not much, but made my life easier. Cost per hatchery was just short of R180.

I took 3 x rainmeters and 3 sprinkler shut off valves. Drilled holes in the bottom of the rain mater and stuck the 25mm long male part of the valve into the rain meter. Then i used Seachem Flourish Epoxy to secure the valve into the rain meter. This resulted in my loosing the bottom 25mm of the meter, but ensured that I will not break the valve loose while opening and closing it.

After the epoxy has set, I drilled a 4mm hole from the outside of the rain meter to the centre of the valves "pipe area". I then inserted a straight connector into that hole and sealed it.

I then build a frame to fit over the with of a 2foot tank that would hold the hatcheries in place. Because it is partially submerged into the tank, the temp of the water inside the hatchery follows the temp of the water in the tank. The air blowing through the 6 mm pipe, agitates the water and brine shrimp eggs.





When I want to harvest the brine shrimp, I remove the rain meter from the tank, I disconnect the air pipe and a non return valve prevents the water from running out through the air pipe. I place the rain meter in a holder and allow the water to settle. There is a small light close to the bottom of the rain meter to lure the BBS down while the eggs and shells float to the top. Once everything has settled I open the valve at the bottom and drain the brine shrimp into a holder. I then throw the water back into the rain meter through a BBS net and feed the brine shrimp to the fry. I return the Rain meter to the tank and harvest from it again for a few days before restarting the process. I have three hatcheries so that i can start a new one every 3 days or so.




The small tubs to the right is where i grow out fry that hatched after I removed the eggs from the parents. I have a very small pump circulating water and installed two 5 mm sprinkler line adaptors into the pipe to allow fresh water into each miniature grow out tank constantly. On the left of the tubs there is a hole blocked by filter media, allowing the water to drain back into the main tank. Once the fry eat on their own, I dump the content of the tub into a bigger grow out tank.

A lot of work i guess, but enjoyable enough to try and streamline the process a bit.

 

Allow me to wax philosophical and project a little. I think you were blessed with the fry because it forced you to become creative, also it added novelty to your tank routine. I still have a lot of things to look forward to with the ADA, but with my little grow-op the stimulation is starting to wane. The plants are doing great, my DIY CO2 is done, dusted and ticking away. I don't even have to feed fish or worry about water changes. I have to resist the urge to drive to a pet shop and buy a handful of (sacrificial?) guppies for it in spite of the promise I made not to use it for keeping fish. Even the liverwort I bought is thriving on neglect - they're still floating in their pots and I can see a lot of visible growth and bulking up. Ennui is my nemesis and if I place myself in your shoes, I think it's a very cool setup that ticks all the mental boxes.

 

@Jaco de Jongh Very very cool set up Dude !!! I am currently also busy trying to set up mine. Just a question : do you have a airline tube pumping air into the hatchery right ? from the bottom I assume?

 

Hi yes. I drilled a hole just above the valve at the bottom, inserted a straight connector and connected my airline to it.

 

Please can you share a close up pic of where the airline tube connects. I want to try this as well. Thank you @Jaco de Jongh

 

Hi, where do you get the brine shrimp? I saw a box of Ocean nutrition brine shrimp eggs at my LFS but it was R800 for 50g. Is this normal pricing?

 

Hi I buy from a guy privately at R6/g. He is based in Denotter/Nigel. You can add R60 for pudo, but still if you buy enough you still score compared to buying from a LFS. be careful of LFS deals, sometime you will buy some brands with only 2G eggs and the rest is the salt, its like a premix (Just add water) kind of idea. The weight on the package is including the salt and you only get a small amount of Eggs. I can also get my hands on A grade eggs R3600 for 1kg so roughly R3.60 fer gram, but that is way to many eggs for my requirements currently. I use about 10g per month if that much. I order about 40-50 g at a time and store it in the fridge, taking out about halve a teaspoon every 3 days.

I can privately send you the guys number.

 

That brown at the bottom is the epoxy I have used to secure the valve into position. I just connect the airpipe to the non return valve and use a little inline regulator to control the amount of air. you dont want to stir the solution to much.

 

Thank you for this