My Brine Shrimp Hatchery And Sieve.

[thedragonslayer]

I tried to do brine shrimp last year when I got 176 gold fish fry off of craigslist. The eggs were old, but I thought I would try anyway, they did not do well.  I got myself some guppies a few months ago, again off of craigslist and the females have had babies, so I thought I would give hatching out brineshrimp a try again. I found a mini aquarium at a local rescue run thrift store, it has a small lit hood.  I also found a tiny two part coffee filter that I thought would make a good sieve for the brine shrimp.  They both work great, I got new eggs and they hatched out fine. I made a hole in one part of the sieve to fit an airline tube that I use as the siphon to remove the brine shrimp and when I am done, I squirt fresh water into it to rinse them off, then open it to feed my fish. The bay fish devoured the shrimp, even the week old fry were gobbling them down.

 

[RCA]

Cool, well done.
I grow micro worms, Walter worms and banana worms for my fry.

 

[thedragonslayer]

The brine shrimp hatchery is working wonderfully, it sits on a reptile heating pad and it keeps it at 82º at night and 84º during the day, perfect temperature for hatching brine shrimp. I use a clip to attach the siphon tube in the tank, position the other end over a small bucket with the mini coffee filter clipped to the side, I use a needless syringe at the end of the tube to start the siphon going, one or two pulls on the syringe and the water starts flowing. I attach the end to the mini filter and siphon away till I get about 2/3rds of the water out of the tank, then just lift the tube up and the siphon stops. I rinse the tube using the syringe and after removing the siphon tube, I rinse the brine shrimp through the top part of the filter.  I get enough to fill the bottom of the filter with shrimp that I then feed the two tanks of guppy fry and the two tanks of separated adults. Does anyone know if Salt Lake brine shrimp are larger then San Francisco Bay brine shrimp and are Sea Monkeys Salt lake brine shrimp? I thought I might order some sea monkey eggs and see how they hatch out and look.  
 
attached photo is of the filled coffee filter, the filter is about 1 1/2 inches across, for perspective.  second photo is of the brine shrimp in the hatchery.

 

[thedragonslayer]

I am still getting hatchings out of the hatchery. I add the siphoned water back to the tank with the addition of fresh dechlorinated water to bring it back up to level. This morning after siphoning off enough to feed all the fish a breakfast of brine shrimp, I went out to my goldfish pond and siphoned up some greenwater and bits of stringy algae from the walls of the pond, this evening after dinner I stopped the air pump to settle the water and put a light on the side of the tank. There were hords of brine shrimp and the bits of stringy algae were coated with shrimp, the water is filled with them. Tomorrow is day three, how long do the eggs keep hatching out? How big do brine shrimp get? And are there different types due to different locations? One of my clients said she did a photo shoot of brine shrimp in Death Valley one year when they got heavy rains, but she said they were like a half inch long or longer, do they get that big? Are sea monkeys the same type as those from a little glass vial? Lots of questions, but I have not been able to find all the answers online yet and thought I would defer to those in the fish world first.

 

[thedragonslayer]

Answered all my questions by doing more research, they mature to about 1/2 long and can live from six months to one year and there are eight varieties. They have been around for at least 100,000,000 years. 4 million pounds of  brine shrimp eggs are sold every year and brine shrimp eggs can last up to 50 years, they can also take extreme cold and up to two hours in boiling water and still hatch out when put in salt water.

 

[RCA]

Thanks for the updates, it is valuable that you share what you find out. I like to research anything I am interested I as well and often link in or update my topics accordingly. If you were able to let some grow on, maybe another hatchery, then you would find your adult fish would relish these with delight. You never know I may return to your post in the future and get my own going, a change from the worms for my fry

 

[thedragonslayer]

The Petco mini aquarium is so similar to the Sea Monkey aquarium/hatchery, just does not have a built in magnifier. Further research told me that the Salt Lake brine shrimp are larger when they hatch out.  I was thinking of setting up my other 5 gallon tank to mature out some of the brine shrimp, they like the green water from my outdoor pond.