Keeping Brine Shrimp Alive

[shortymet55]

I have all adult fish, so I want to grow out adult brine shrimp. Just for a snack. Anyways, I use the 2L bottle method, and I add in some eggs into the saltwater that is bubbling. After two days, I get lots of babies. After, a few more days, I add flour (Only thing I can think of to feed them that I have). After not long most die off. By the time they have grow large enough for my fish to even have an interest in, I have 4 left. Any ideas? How do I do water changes? I tried doing one, but my method failed. I tried catching them in tissue paper, then dumping them off into clean water. Didnt go well. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[BigC]

http/www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c123/What...hrimp-c119.html

 

[helterskelter]

all the fish u list will happily eat baby brine shrimp all day long, even large angels will.

Rearing BS is not easy u need to give them more space and grow lows of green water.
3 days after hatching the develop mouth parts and then start to feed.

 

[Colin_T]

yuo should grow daphnia instead. They are easier to keep and grow up, and make a better food than brineshrimp.

 

[OldMan47]

OK I am going to agree with Colin about the value of daphnia and ask how do you grow green water. I have a daphnia culture that is not thriving because I am having trouble providing them with enough green water. I was given a green water culture to go with the daphnia but even with a very long photoperiod, it doesn't seem to grow. I tried a 10 gallon tank with 2 light strips over it for 16 hours a day and the color gradually fades. There are 5 small, 1 1/2 inch, fish in that 10 gallon but it looks like they are not producing enough waste to fertilize the green water. I have a 2 litre bottle that I sit out in the sun and add artificial fertilizer to, that does produce some good green water but it is not enough to feed my daphnia. As the daphnia culture dies back, I am sure I will reach a point where the bit of green water that I produce will be enough for them but I really want a good vigorous daphnia culture and right now I'm finding that impossible. I have had the culture for about a month and am starting to become frustrated trying to keep everything going.

 

[helterskelter]

Ye it's not easy to keep in doors green water.

A water vat or pond is best in the a sunny place and a load of horse manure, put a shovel full in once a week and you have loads of green water or put some daphina in their and it will do well.

In doors find a sunny window and place a glass jar there with bannana skin and tank/pond water in it and this will go green or an least get some microscopic foods going to feed the daphina/BS

 

[BigC]

Try Japanese Daph. Monia.
Regards
BigC

 

[Colin_T]

If you remove the fish from the tank you can increase the photoperiod and have the lights on 24 hours a day. This will help. But by the sounds of it there are too many daphnia in the culture and they are eating too much algae. This would indicate there is insufficient nutrients to encourage the algae. Try adding a liquid plant fertiliser each day, or feeding the fish a lot more. Also make sure the culture is aerated to prevent the fish and daphnia from suffocating should the algae take off and go nuts.
It is also possible the fish are eating the baby daphnia and preventing the numbers from building up.

As mentioned the easiest way to culture daphnia is to have a couple of large (100litre +) water containers outside. You can either use animal manures to create infusoria, or artificial fertilisers (lawn fertiliser) to make green water. I prefer lawn fertiliser because it gives you a cleaner culture that doesn't smell as bad and is less likely to have bacteria in it.
Add 1 tablespoon of fertiliser for every 20litres of water, aerate the mixture and wait until it goes green. Then introduce some daphnia and wait a week or so until their numbers have built up. Then you can start harvesting them.
It is a good idea to start a new culture every couple of weeks. When the water in the new culture goes green you transfer some of the daphnia into it and leave them to build up in numbers. By the time the new culture is in full production the older culture is slowing down and can be tipped out and started again.

You can also produce infusoria cultures by adding plant matter (lettuce leaves or lawn clippings) to a container of water. Use 1 whole lettuce for every 20litres of water and then cover the culture. Aerate it too. After a few weeks the culture will no longer smell and should start to clear. Once the water has cleared and no longer smells, add some daphnia and wait. You will need to add a couple of crumbled up lettuce leaves each day to feed the infusoria. This culture will last a while but eventually the daphnia eat all the infusoria and the culture will start to decline. You should start a new culture every few weeks.
The infusoria culture (without daphnia in) can be used for feeding fish fry that are too small to take baby brineshrimp.

 

[drobbyb]

You can also use vinegar eels to feed fry too small to eat baby brine shrimp. My rainbow fry eat them the first week to week and a half. Culturing vinegar eels is easy and takes just a few weeks (roughly 3) for a culture to mature.

 

[OldMan47]

I may not have been clear enough. I am not tryingto keep the fish, daphnia and green water all in the same tank. My daphnia culture is in a 2 litre jar and my successful green water starter is in another 2 litre jar. I seeded the 10 gallon with green water and use the fish to provide waste for it to grow but I am keeping the daphnia in the 2 litre. The fish in that tank get more food than I would normally feed to that many fish. The daphnia get some green water from the separate container whenever their water starts looking clear to turn it a pale green again. The 2 litre starter for green water I am feeding with artificial 10-10-10 fertilizer and it does OK as long as I get lots of sunlight on it. There is an air pump dedicated to the 2 litre jar of green water as well.

For small fry I have good success with microworms, banana worms and walter worms but I am trying to get the daphnia to increase as a live food treat for my adult fish. Thanks for the suggestion DrobbyB. The worms do well with fry and vinegar eels would probably be easier to maintain.

 

[Colin_T]

ok gotcha

you will always have problems trying to get any sort of numbers in a small container like a 2lt jar. It's just too small to be of much use. You would be better off going to a shop and getting a couple of 60-120lt plastic storage crates and sticking them outside. Then you would get heaps of daphnia.