Live Brine Shrimp To Feed My Fish?

[MrsEspoNYC7]

Hi I have a few questions on feeding my fish, I have 6 black skirt tetras, 5 long fin zebra danios, 1 blue dwarf gourami, and 3 Amano shrimp ( just added today and I love love love them by the way) I have read that you can feed live adult brine shrimp as a supplement to your fishes flake food or as a treat , how often is it ok to feed them the brine shrimp? I fed them some today from the lfs and they devoured them all in 10 seconds flat. I bought some eggs and I'm hatching them and plan to move them to a 10 gallon to grow them once they hatch so I have some fresh at home instead of going to the store to buy them every time.

Has anyone ever grown their own brine shrimp at home and have any advice?
How often can I feed these to my fish?
Can I feed the brine shrimp fry food until they are adults or do I switch after they mature?

Thanks ....View attachment 70071

 

[TwoTankAmin]

More than you ever wanted to know about brine and how and when to feed it
http/www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/1/inverts
 
Even though oriented toward sw folks and fish- it is relevant to fw fish as well. I have corresponded with the author regarding brine. A very nice gent.

 

[MrsEspoNYC7]

Thanks for that link. Has anyone fed spirulina powder to their brine shrimp. Is fry food for the baby brine shrimp or for the adult brine shrimp. ...

 

[TwoTankAmin]

If my memory serves me, that article, or else Part I mentioned two specific brands of food for brine. I would start with those names and see what you can find out. I also believe there are different foods for baby vs adult brine.
 

 
The same is true of adult brine: they are largely devoid of nutritional value when you purchase them at the local petshop, and it is important to enrich them before feeding brine shrimp to your fish. For live adult brine shrimp, it is relatively simple to enrich them with a HUFA supplement (such as Selcon or Zoecon), and that greatly enhances the nutritional value of these animals as a food for your aquarium pets.

I am happy to report my memory is still working.

 

[MrsEspoNYC7]

Thanks again. I read the article it was very helpful. I think it pertains to baby brine shrim more than the actual growing out to adult size. That's really what I want to find more details about. Every article I read seems kind vague on how to actually grow out the babies to adult size. How long is their lifespan. Do I have to do this in a giant plastic tub or can I keep them in a 10 gallon aquarium to grow and feed occasionally to my fish. Has anyone done this in their house on a small scale. If so please give some pointers or just share how your experience went. Thanks again.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The feeding applies to both when you are about to feed the brine as food. Brine will retain what you feed them for a bit. What makes them such good potential food is one can feed them a lot of things you want to get into the fish. The trick is feeding this food to the brine for a day for baby size and a couple of days (I think) for adults.
 
Those foods mentioned above are for that purpose- they are intended to wind up inside the fish. Brine are indiscriminate filter feeders, so you load the food with the stuff you want the fish to have and the brine cooperate by ingesting it. Very specific nutrients are being put into the brine this way.
 
Current research involves trying to use live brine as a way to deliver medications to whatever eats them. A lot of the this stuff is behind the scenes of the hobby but can be pretty interesting when one stumbles across it.

 

[MrsEspoNYC7]

Update ...I hatched my brine shrimp eggs using the 2 soda bottle method and siphoned the hatched ones into my 5 gallon shrimp grow out tank, I'll be picking up some liquid fry food today to feed them and I ordered spirulina powder to feed later on before I feed the adults to my display tank. I'll try to post a pic when they are a little bigger... So far everything seems to be going ok.

I'd like to hear from anyone else who has done this at home ... How was your experience with this.