Hatching brine shrimp.........best set-up

[bobbdd]

Knowing that a varied diet is best, what is the best and easiest way to hatch your own brine shrimp?

Are there any special set-ups that you can buy? If yes, where?

If the baby hatchings are not big enough for juveniles and adults....what do you recommend?

Thanks folks!

 

[tjudy]

All of my dwarfs relish a daily squirt of bbs. Even the adults. Hatching the cysts is quite easy, and you do not need a big set up to get started. Get ans empty 2-liter bottle and cut about 1/3 of the bottom off. Leave enough of an opening to get salt, water and eggs in. Use a coffee can or other round recepticle to hold the bottle upside down. Use an air pump with a line runing to a piece of rigid airline tubing and an airstone as a bubbler in the bottle. Place the set up in a warm, not hot, place with light. Light is very important.

Place a tablespoon of salt in the bottle. Place the number of eggs you want to hatch in too. The more eggs, the more shrimp. Experiment with the amount that you need. Get a good quality 90% hatch rate egg. There are some being sold for a good price ($20/pound can) in the 'store' on this site. Fill the bottle up to about an inch from the top with clean water. Insert teh bubbler and leave it alone for 24 - 26 hours, depending upon temperature. After 24 hours take the bubbler out and let it settle. If there is a good hatch, there will be a lot of shells floating, and few unhatched eggs in the bottom. The shrimp will be the orange cloud in the middle. If there are still a lot on the bottom, let it bubble for another 12 hours.

I use two bottles and stagger the starts. My garage is cool, so I get my best hatches after nearly 48 hours.

To harvest, I use a coffee filiter and one of those plastic coffee filter holders that sits on top of a coffee cup to make a single cup of jo. I pour the contents of the bottle through that filter. I carefully invert the drained filter into a glass of clean water. All of the shrimp will be in the bottom of the filter. Shells will mostly be on the sides. If you are careful, you can dip just the part of the filter with the shrimp into the water. Let them settle for a few minutes in freshwater, then use a syringe or baster to suck them up and go feed your fish.

The products page on this site, what we call the 'store', sells the eggs and a very nice bulb syringe that is great for sucking up froxen or live foods. It is like a high quality turkey baster.

 

[Claude]

what kind of salt do you use?

 

[tjudy]

I use instant Ocean, but only because I had a box lying around. I use to use plain aquarium salt. A lot of people I know use rock salt (without iodine).

 

[Z Man]

At an auction over 10 years ago I got 2-1 gallon "show" tanks for killies. 6x6x9 high. Almost fill with water, add 1/2 tablespoon of eggs and 1/3 cup of good old table salt (60# bags @ $5.40) place in a rigid plastic airline tube and have a 15 watt bulb on 24 hours a day between the 2 tanks. When ready (24 to 36 hrs) I pull out the air tube and after settling I remove the bright orange BBS with an airline through a brine shrimp net. A new batch is set-up every day so the longest I wait for eggs to hatch is 48 hours. Been doing this a long time. No need to buy an already made up one.

 

[Moreta]

Good Website Article on brine hatching

Hi,
I'm new here but thought I'd put in my 2 cents. I've kept seahorses, both dwarves and full size for some time and this website has a great article with DIY pictures...
www.seahorse.org

Unfortunately, there is no direct address for the articles, just go the library icon on the first page then to articles. There is a subcatagory called food and nutrition and an article called "The Complete guide to Artema". There are nice pictures, and a good explanation of the "decapsulation" method which not only cuts down on hydroids (at least in saltwater tanks) but raises hatch rates. Also, there are articles on how to enrich brine to make it more nutritous. There is also culturing rotifers and how to enrich frozen Mysis Shrimp if that's applicable.

Hope this helps,

Tracy R

 

[apistodave]

A good cheap salt to use is water softener salt 50 lbs for 4.00

 

[Roger]

Brine Shrimp

That article at seahorse.org is a nice one, probably one of the better descriptions that I have read along with explinations on the who/what/when/where of it all. Its enough to make me want to try my hand at this again

Ive seen people use the jumbo size pickel jars and just run an airhose down into it. They put a lamp next to the jars pointing at the middle. Just keep it warm and mix up the witches brew. When your ready to harvest just turn off the air and turn on the light. Most of your shrimp will migrate to the middle where the light is at. Suck up with syringe and then out through a brine shrimp net. Rinse and feed ..

Peace,
Roger

 

[aspen]

just to add 1 more tip to the already rich selection of good advice here: when you've tried it all, and can't seem to get a decent hatch, try new eggs. that was my problem, the eggs i was using. most lfs's do NOT sell a lot of these things, and their eggs are likely pretty old. try to ensure a good source, and you should do o.k., even i was cabable of hatching them with good eggs.

hth, rick