Bbs?

[chelbel]

I need some help please
Baby brine shrimp where do I get it from???
Someone mentioned growing it how???

 

[SJ2K]

Some LFS sells them, if its sea monkies your after I know woolworths also sell them Lol

 

[chelbel]

Sea monkeys???
I want some baby brine shrimp for my fry

 

[Musho3210]

sea monkeys is a fancy name and advertising gismo. They are the same as brine shrimp.

 

[Flagfin]

Hya - there's loads of info on the web about brine shrimp and how to hatch them. I find it's much cheaper to hatch them myself that relying on LFS to supply them. You don't need much, just the eggs, a pop bottle (and stand) and an air pump/line/stone. Basically you have to vigourously aerate the eggs for 24 hours while they're hatching, once hatched you turn the air pump off and let it stand for 5/10 mins then the shrimps fall to the bottom and the egg shells float. Depending on how much cash you have available I would highly reccommend going on the ZM website and getting a brineshrimp hatchery (also their eggs are very high quality, I have four of these on the go constantly) - ok more money but they are neat systems that do the job very well and are easier to use than home made set ups (or maybe it was just my home made one that was bad!). When your using BBS just try to make sure that you use them as soon after hatching as possible as this is when they are most nutritious, after 12-18 hours (timings vary depending on what you read) their egg sack is all used up and you should enrich them yourself which is a whole different ball game. Hope that helps.

 

[Tolak]

I can tell you the procedure I follow every night with my hatchery, and what some other folks do as well.

I'm cheap, I use a 2 liter bottle for hatching in, and built a box with a dimmer to contain the light, and heat. The dimmer adjusts the temperature, you can see the setup here; http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=136880&hl=

You can just as easily use a desk lamp, or other lamp in an enclosed area to keep the temperature at 80F. I imagine a deep drawer from a discarded dressed would work good, a cardboard box would probably be a bad idea due to being more flammable. I've seen people run hatcheries with a 2-liter bottle, and a gooseneck desk lamp on the corner of a table. Anything that provides light 24/7, and a constant temperature of 80F will do.

I used to run my hatchery off of a small air pump; it's hooked into my centralized system now. You do want plenty of aeration; this keeps the artemia cysts suspended in the brine solution.

You can see from the pics in the link how much water I fill with, about 1 1/2 liters. I don't add any dechlorinator, just cold tap water. I add 2 tablespoons of non-iodized salt; I've been using livestock salt, $3 for a 50-pound bag. I told you I was cheap. I also add about 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda, and since doing a little experimenting, 3 drops of chlorine bleach. I've seen breeders add a drop or two of acriflavin instead of bleach; the idea behind either of these is to keep bacteria levels down. The baking soda increases hardness; some folks will use Epsom salt instead.

So, after adding salt, baking soda, bleach and eggs I give the hatchery a good stir, and ignore it until the next night. The next night I pull the hose out of the hatchery, put the hatchery on the table, and shine a bright light on the bottom, this makes the bbs settle to the bottom. I then get what is left from the previous evening hatch out of the fridge, and get my bbs cup, which is nothing more than a large deep plastic cup with a paper coffee filter rubber banded to the top. I take my turkey baster (every aquarist should have a turkey baster) and take the previous hatch out of the old sour cream container I use to store bbs. I have a 1" square hole cut in the top; this lets a little fresh air in during storage. The stored bbs goes into the filter/cup gizmo, and drains while the hatchery is settling. After about 3 minutes I pour a little fresh water into the filter to rinse. A few minutes later I take the baster, and add some of the fresh bbs from the hatchery to the now empty & rinsed out sour cream container. To get past the shells floating at the top, without mixing them in, rub your nose a couple of times with you finger. Touch the surface of the bbs hatchery. Oil from your skin reduces surface tension, and the shells all go to the edge.

Now I add a little more water to the filter, and walk around feeding the older bbs to older fry. Once this is done, I take some of the freshly hatched bbs, and add them to the filter. I go through the same rinsing procedure before feeding these to younger fry. The sour cream container goes in the fridge, the hatchery, hose, and top go to the utility sink for a good rinse and refill, and it starts over again.

This procedure takes about 10 minutes; I try to multitask through it. Many people will get two batches going, one in the morning, and one in the evening. I hate mornings, and don't need this extra 10 minutes of work when I could be sucking down coffee; one batch daily being refrigerated has worked fine for years.

 

[Alistriwen]

www.brineshrimpdirect.com is the best place to buy if you are in the U.S. They sell good quality at low prices. If you are in Canada like me, shipping from there is very high but my roommate orders for us from somewhere else and I can give you that link if you like. San fransisco makes a great hatchery for $15 that makes collecting and feeding a snap, or you can do the cheaper bottle setup but for us the effort of straining the eggs etc was worth spending the extra money. Hope this helps.

 

[chelbel]

sea monkeys is a fancy name and advertising gismo. They are the same as brine shrimp.

Ahh I may just buy some
Thanks

Thanks everyone
I didn't realise it would be so hard

Next question is are frozen ones really thar bad???

 

[Musho3210]

freezing can burst cells and nutrients, but remember, both adult frozen and live isnt that nutritious unless you A. Gutload for the live ones or B. get enriched frozen ones. Freshly hatched baby live brine is the best.

 

[chelbel]

Thank you, I'll give it a go

 

[angelmouse]

this is the brine shrimp hatcher i made, i put it inside my tank as its the right temp and has light, get plenty of bbs, i have 2 set up and change i each day for continuous feeding, easy just add salt and eggs and airline, i use r/o water as i have it but don't know if it makes any difference

Regards Angel

 

[Ian H]

how would you go about making them adults? my fish love them as does my DP but the babies are to small aint they?