I am looking to start up a brine shrimp hatchery but am not sure on the water to use. I read the instructions it says "full strength sea water S.G 1.022 at 24C" Do I use tap water as I have read others do or RO water? Also I would assume that I use the salt produced with the kit? There was a mention that iodinized water dramatically reduces the amount of shrimp that hatch; is this true?? I always thought brine had a higher salinity that sea water; 1.022 does not sound very salty and my tank is running at 1.026. How much does it affect the yield if I incubate them at 26C? I ask because it one of these kits where you place the hatchery in a preexisting tank and thereby use the temperature and light from that system.

I am eagerly awaiting some replies to get things started

Regards

As always the use of tapwater really depends on the organsims and your water. But since your hatchery will be in the display, I'd use RO.

You can bump up the salinity to 1.026, that's fine. The brine shrimp hatchery kit is prolly just trying to save $$ on salt.

I have a high hatching rate & simply use coarse salt (3 table spoons) in ordinary tap water in a cut-off plastic 2l plastic Coke bottle with strong aeration...(at about 28 deg C)

Brine shrimp are very hardy little creatures and can catch in most types of water.

You can use both tap water and RO, the tap water dosent even have to be dechlorinated, just add some salt to it.
The s.g. can also be pretty much anything, 1.022-1.026 would be fine.

Temperature of 24-28 will do and as said, they need areation to keep them flowing around the bottle.

Thanks for the replies most appreciated. They are bubbling away now.

Regards

Just a quick question 42 hours have passed and still no signs of any brine shrimp. Can it take longer than 48 hours? Are the baby brine shrimp visible?? I know in mass they change the colour of the water to an orangey brown but what about less dense populations?

Regards

This post has been edited by Crazy fishes: Jul 18 2008, 08:34 AM

First off the best way to hatch them is in the kits that go in the tank. I use one of these with great sucess and use the water direct from the tank also. Its all about getting the flow of bubbles right and not putting too many eggs in at once. When you first set it up its best to have the bubbles on a fastflow, one every second or so. Then after about 36hrs turn that flow down by half. This will cause the shells to drop and the shrimp to rise making it easy to suck them up with a large syringe. If you put too many eggs in this can stop them hatching, and you will only get a few. Its trial and error I found to get the right amount , but once you get it you get an excellent hatch rate.
When hatched they are really tiny and depending on how many you have can be difficult to see , they tend to swim to the light so harvest from the top A Large syringe is helpful with this, you can also hold it upto a light and this makes it easier to see them swimming around.

Thanks Littleme from the reply and I will certainly take count of what you have said. A grand announcement now follows: I HAVE SHRIMP!!! YAA!! They are little and darting around like ..... well shrimp. Now to feed they up so they can get big and yummy for Ted and Doll (the clown fish). Incidently has anyone noticed the applauling english spelling on the front of the clown fish bible. Since when was the plural of fish fishes. Not quite sure but I have shrimp YAA

Regards