Brine Shrimp Eggs?

[qwertylol52]

i was thinking of buying some brine shrimp eggs to hatch and feed my fishes but thing is, i do not know how to hatch them...can anyone give me a step by step simple and foolproof way on how to hatch them using the least materials required..and also, would my bettas, platys, cory and pleco eat them?? thanks alot..

 

[Colin_T]

Get a 2litre plastic Coke bottle (fizzy drink bottle) and cut the top off it so it is just like a tall clear vase.

Fill the container with about 1 litre of salt water, seawater or rock salt and freshwater made up to the same salinity (salt level) as natural seawater. You can get a plastic chamber hydrometer from the LFS to help you make up salt water

Add 1/4 level teaspoon of shrimp eggs to this container of salt water.

Add an airstone and allow it to bubble for a day or two. Generally after 24-36 hours, depending on temperature, the eggs will have hatched and there will be little orange things in the water. The eggs are brown, the newly hatched shrimp are orange.

Once the eggs have hatched, take the airstone out and put the container next to a light. The shrimp will gather near the light and you can syphon them out with a plastic syringe or and eye dropper.

Most adult fish don't bother trying to eat newly hatched brineshrimp because the shrimp are very small. However, most small fish like neon tetras and guppies, and most baby fish will readily take them.

 

[waterdrop]

Colin,

That was a really nice piece of instruction to file away, thanks for that! I always enjoy learning new things from the wide-ranging experience you have.

What extent of nutrition should we expect brine shrimp to provide? I remember reading a discussion here where I think brine shrimp were described as a rich sort of almost "junk food for fish" that many of them seem to love but that should be perhaps used as more of a treat.

Do you feel this way about brine shrimp? And thus, what sort of frequency should brine shrimp feeding take, relative to balanced flake food or other foods?

Thanks,
waterdrop

 

[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; [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-World-Cichlids/136880/http-www-fishforums-net-index-php-showtopic-136880hl-/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-Worl...opic-136880hl-/[/URL]

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.

You have to realize there is a difference between adult brine shrimp and freshly hatched baby brine shrimp. Adult brine shrimp have a lot less nutritional value, but do provide roughage, which is an important part of keeping a fish's digestive system regular. BBS are just hatched, with a yolk sack that provides plenty of protein, are small enough for many fry to eat, and are moving, which stimulates the feeding instinct in many newly hatched fry.

 

[Colin_T]

As Tolak said there is a difference between adult and newly hatched brineshrimp. Newly hatched shrimp have heaps of value especially to young fish but unless the adult shrimp are fed a high quality algae before they are frozen, they don't have much nutritional value.

You can feed newly hatched shrimp to your fish every day. Adult brineshrimp can be offered once or twice a week in conjunction with other foods. If you feed your fish once a day then only feed adult brineshrimp once a week. Better foods to offer most community fish include prawn/shrimp, fish, squid/octopus, mussel and most other marine life. Mosquito larvae and daphnia are good foods that can be cultured at home and fed to the fish every couple of days to add variety.

I use live adult brineshrimp to get new fish eating if they aren't eating properly. Then once they have started taking food I put them onto prawn and fish. The movement of the brineshrimp not only helps stimulate the feeding instinct of fry, but it also helps with adult fish that may be suffering from stress due to being shipped long distances or being stuck in bags for too long.