Artemia

[fry_lover]

Hi

Last night i used the Sera Artemia mix i got off ebay a few weeks ago. I had 7x 18gram packets. Each packet is supposed to mixed with 500 ml tapwater and they hatch in 24 hours. Each bag states its a "1 day share for fish"

As its hard to keep 500ml of water at the required temp (79-82F) and also to aerate it as required, i used all 7 bags at once in a bucket with about 6 litres of water.

There is a heater in there and an airpump. The temp is about 80F. I read on the net last night that the artemia like light in order to hatch properly (not sure how true this is) but i stuck a small 20W bulb over the bucket anyway.

My Questions

1. anyone used this Sera Artemia mix or equilivilent? I was wondering how much artemia i am going to end up with considering i used 7 packets!!!!

2. I read that artemia reach full adult size in about 8 days. Can i just keep them in the bucket at 80F and lots of aeration for 8 days or do they need feeding?

3. This might sound silly, but if i try to grow on the artemia do i need to do water changes with them???

4. I understand they grow best / survive best in near marine conditions, i know the packets come with salt already in. Should i trust its the right mix of salt of add some more??

5. I keep guppies, platies, mollies, corydoras, convicts, jade-eye, kribensis and also i have loads of fry from most of these fish. Shall i just feed them the newly hatched artemia (i.e. after 24 hours) or is it worth gorwing some on??? if so how do i do this

Cheers

IMPORTANT NOTE:
really if i used 7 packs i should have used 7x500 ml of water (3.5 L). I used about 6 litres so i could fit a heater in the bucket. I guess this has diluted the salt content of the water, shall i add some more salt. I have proper marine salt here as i have a brackish tank. Thanks

 

[BigC]

Hi,
Ok... I think you are trying to hatch in, essence, brineshrimp eggs, only Sera have decided to package a salt and egg mix for you to add water to. This is a very expensive way of doing things if all you want is Artemia nauplii to feed small fish fry. It can be as simple or as complicated as you wish to make it. A good hatch rate is required Yes but you will never use every last nauplii from one batch, with that in mind...some aquarists will only use sea salt to a specific gravity etc. etc. etc. I have been breeding fish for over 25 years now and always hatched the B/S eggs the most easy way I could and it is as follows.

Items needed.
500ml Soft Drinks bottle
Cooking Salt
Light Source
Brineshrimp eggs
Bicarbonate of Soda.

Make a simple hatcher from the pic provided.
3/4 fill the bottle with pre boiled water left to cool
Add 1 Tablespoon of Cooking Salt
Add a very tiny amount of Bicarb of soda (if your tap water is less than pH8
Add 1/2 Teaspoon of Brineshrimp eggs (let them soak for half an hour to hydrate before turning on the air supply.
Then turn on the supply of air to adgitate the salt and brineshrimp eggs.
A light source needs to be provided 24/7 this can also be your source of heat I use an 11w energy saver bulb aside the bottles. (this works perfectly well.
The eggs should hatch in 24hrs.
Shut off the air,,, and light the live shrimp should sink to the bottom and can be drained via the clamp.
Strain the nauplii through a cotton hankerchief draped over a jam-jar and flush with some fresh water to de-salinate the shrimp, now all that's left to do is to swirl the hankerchief in the fry/fish tank.
Rearing nauplii to adulthood in large quantities is very time consuming but that is not to say that it can't be done, space is needed, Yes they do need water changes and Yes they do need feeding. Unless you are feeding a great many fish then it is not really a viable project.
I hope this was of some help to you and others
Regards
BigC

 

[SeahorseWhisperer]

I have run a continuous culture of brine shrimp for quite a while, and have found for me it is easier than hatching eggs freq. I do raise them in live phytoplankton, but I know some use algae paste with good results. I don't do actual water changes persay, but I do remove water when I harvest, and replace with water from my tanks.

Here is my set up:
Zooplankton

 

[fry_lover]

thanks for this, yes you are correct all i really want is good live foos for fry and small fish

can you tell me about this "shell" business. I have been told to make sure i dont feed unhatched shells to my fish as its dangerous?

i was hoping that after 24 hours i could just net out all the artemia and feed to my fish?

i paid a total of £10.20 including the postage for 8 packs

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...N%3AIT&rd=1

i guess what i am afteris the most economical way to feed live food to my fish

not interested in puchasing live food from LFS, too risky i feel

 

[SeahorseWhisperer]

I get the BS cysts/eggs from a local company, so I am not sure what is offered in Europe. I live by this huge, saltwater lake that harvests billions of pounds of these cysts every year, so for me it is almost free to hatch these things!

But, the nutritional value is very limited. If you do not HAVE to have live food, to entice a feeding response in a small fry for example, I would not feed them. I try to get my fry to anything else as quickly as possible, because without a lot of work enriching the naupuli, the fry will eventually succumb to malnutrition. Once I get them to eat more nutritious food, there growth rates explode!

BS will spawn live food if conditions are right. Here in Utah, we have really cold winter, so when the temps begin to drop, the shrimp know the end is near, so they begin producing their young as a shell covered cyst. In the spring, when the temps warm up, the eggs hatch, the food increases and the shrimp begin producing live spawnage again.

If we are hatching the eggs in our homes (I use a 2 liter bottle cut up, inverted), the shell of the eggs will float to the surface when the air lines is turned off. The unhatched eggs sink and the live newly hatched shrimps hang out in the middle, actually toward the bottom. I have heard that if a fish eats the shell, it can cause a bowel obstruction, but my fry examine eat bite they eat and are very discriminatory. They will actually let one shrimp swim by to chase another!

If your fry will eat anything, give them Cyclopeeze! i am not sure if that is available to you, but you might look for it, because it is really nutritious. But, it is marine so you might have better choices if you are raising FW fry.

You can de-capsulate the eggs, and get the same nutrition, maybe even better because the shrimp does not have to use energy to break out of it's shell. But, it's buoyancy is affected and I find it harder to hatch de-capsulated cysts. Some people just feed the de-capsulated (de shelled/)eggs to their fry and corals , though. Again, if you don't need to elicit that feeding response to live food....

It is easy to de-capsulate with a solution of bleach, if that is the way you want to go?