Brine Shrimp Hatching

[gforce17]

Can anyone advise me please. I bought an NT Labs brine shrimp hatchery and I've hatched a couple of batches but they're so small that when I use the sieve thing (tea strainer fine mesh) to catch them I can't really see if they're there or not. I waft it through the water and the fish seem to dive around a bit but I'm not at all convinced that they're getting much of a meal. There was a dripper bottle of food with the kit and with my last batch I dripped some of this food in for a couple of days but I'm not sure that it made much difference. The ones they sell in a plastic bag in the lfs are huge and you can see them easily. Should mine grow to that size in this small hatchery thingymabob?

 

[KittyKat]

The point of hatching one's own shrimp is that one gets babies, which are best fed to fry/young/small fish that are not able to eat adult (shop bought) brine shrimp. If you like, you can grow your brine shrimp (I usually feed them spirulina and standard fish food), but it does take time.

When you collect them, can should be able to see orangy areas in the sieve… personally, I've gone over to using decapsulated brine shrimp instead of newly hatched Artemia.

 

[gforce17]

The point of hatching one's own shrimp is that one gets babies, which are best fed to fry/young/small fish that are not able to eat adult (shop bought) brine shrimp. If you like, you can grow your brine shrimp (I usually feed them spirulina and standard fish food), but it does take time.

When you collect them, can should be able to see orangy areas in the sieve… personally, I've gone over to using decapsulated brine shrimp instead of newly hatched Artemia.

If I go on feeding them in the tiny hatchery for a longer time will they survive in the water conditions?

 

[KittyKat]

How big is the hatchery in terms of volume? They should grow fine if you hatch small amounts in at least 1 litre of water which is constantly aerated and if you feed them only tiny amounts of food at a time.

 

[gforce17]

The hatchery is tiny so it sound as if I need to grow them in a bigger container - not sure if it's worth the effort with so much else to do. Thanks so much for you advice KK!!