Feed BBS??

[apistoguitarra]

If I want to let my BBS grow a little more before I feed them to my fish do I have to feed them anything?

David

 

[tjudy]

Brime shrimp will feed upon a variety of suspended, microscopic food. Green water is the best, but expensive and time consuming to use. Yeast has always been the 'sea monkey' diet, but there is soem debate about the nutritional value of yeast-grown brine.

If you are interested in culturing a live food that is larger than baby brine, then daphnia are the best choice (IMO). They also need green water to thrive, but at least they are freshwater organisms and are easier to make green water for. There are usually several sources of daphnia on Aquabid.

 

[apistoguitarra]

Thanks Ted,

Two more questions.
What is "green water"?
I've heard that brine shrimp live in your tank until they are eaten, if they require salt water, how is this possible?

 

[tjudy]

Baby brine cannot live in freshwater for more than a few hours. Green water is water with a algal bloom in it. You need nutrient rich water, a start of diatom algae (algae that does not stick to anything to grow) and lots of light. I use 1 gallon jars in a south window. If it gets too hot there, I move the jars to an east window so they only get morning sun.

There are several ways to get the culture going. I like the boiled bananna peel method. Boil a piece of bannana peel (about 2 inches square) and pour it and the boiled water in the jar. Top of the jar with clean water (tap is fine). To get an algae start, I will scrub the side of green tank with a clean paper towel and then rinse it in the jar with the bannana peel. Some folks use an airstone. I do not.

I cover the top of the jar with a coffee filter rubber banded to the rim. This keep out dust and other stuff (like bugs).

The trick is to NOT get bacteria in large numbers. If the culture smells foul or gets white-cloudy, then the culture is spoiled. With a good start and good light, the culture will be bright green in about a week. After that you can harvest the algae by pouring 3/4 of the culture into whatever you are feeding with it. Retain 1/4 of the culture to add new, clean water too to keep the culture going (leave the boiled bannana peel in there).

Some folks use boil hay for rye grass instead of a bannana peel. I do not have horses or other livestock... but I do eat bannanas.

Green water cultures are a great way to make infusoria for the very wee fry as well. The bundles grass method is cool because a bundle can be placed in with fry to feed them. I personally have had little luck with this, as I seem to have a hard time controlling bacteria if I use hay.

I have, however, had great success using small sponges kept in the bottom of the culture jar. Wee beasties (to use Luewenhoek's term) alight upon the sponge and use it as a substrate to grow. Fry graze of the little critters we cannot see. I good sponge filter in the fry tank will do the same thing.