Hatching Brine Shrimp

[Jim Tansey]

I'm wondering whats involved in hatching Brine Shrimp, and keeping a supply going for a constant food source, if someone with experience could comment on equipment, life cycle, care, etc. it would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[Bidadari]

I have tried to hatch brine shrimp in the past. It's pretty simple. All you need is the brine shrimp hatchery kit. I think you can buy the stand at LFS, and I use a 2 litter soda bottle for the container, just cut the bottom part. The other thing that you need is an air pump and some airline tubing. You just fill out the hatchery with the salt water and dump a little bit of the brine shrimp eggs. In about 24-48 hours later they hatch. I never tried to raise the babies, I usually dump them right away in the tank for my mandarin. I think you can feed them phytoplankton if you want to raise them.

 

[wrassefan]

I use to hatch eggs all the time when I use to breed bettas. I used the soda bottles also but had them sit in a ten gallon tank tilted abit. I would fill the 10 gal up a 1/3 of the way with water and drop in a heater to keep the temp up on the bottles. Then, same as Bidadari said above. I would run the airline tubing all the way to the bottom and with the tilt, there was almost no way the eggs could settle. Within 2 days, the eggs would hatch. Always kept 2 bottles going when I was rearing fry.

 

[JustDavidP]

I have been growing out BBS for weeks now. Both to feed my baby bangai cardinals and supplement the feeding of my mandarin. I also kept cultures going for years when I had small shell dwelling African cichlids.

I grow them in one of those silly Wallmart 2 gallon bookshelf tanks. Why? Because I had them. I have used commercial built hatcheries, soda bottles, you name it. Other equipment includes a simple and small air pump, hose, and no stone (the cysts will adhere to the fine bubbles, to float to the top, and when the bubble bursts, they often stick to the side of ANY container you use. Much like a skimmer).

I use no heater, but keep a 60 watt desk lamp DIRECTLY over ( I mean an inch) the water surface. Light is important during hatching. It also helps to keep the water temps slightly above room temperature. I use a piece of plexiglass to keep the salt spray off of the light.

The key is to ensure you have decent eggs. Cheap, old, or damaged cysts have a low success rate. Buy fresh, vaccum sealed brine eggs and keep them dry. If you've got some cash to throw around, you can buy de-capsulated cysts. You can also find recipes for doing this on the web. I don't find the shells to be that much of a bother. They either float to the top or settle to the bottom when you stop the water flow. Ensure that the water in the breeder is rolling, like a good boil, but not too strong where the eggs come out of the water. I use a simple brass valve in line.

Because baby brine are not the best source of food (especially after the yolk sack is used), I feed my hatchery with Phyto-Feast Rotifer Diet and essentially "gut pack" them before feeding my fish. I put just a few drops in, turning the water green, and within a day, the water is clear again.

I use a siphon and brine net to collect and feed my system(s). I replace the water with water from my fuge, and replace the fuge water with fresh IO/RO/DI. I scoop floating and siphon out settled shells during this water change.

I break my culture down every two weeks to clear it of cyst shells, debris, etc. I have shrimp in there that range from newly hatched to some larger adult size. Funny....how as a kid, I cried when my "Sea Monkeys" died...now I breed them to eventually send them to death row... a 75G reef.

 

[frazmanw]

I have always used Mason Jars. You can string them togeather in series, You can do 3, or 4 of them, even more if you want.

This is done by:
Punching 2 holes in the lid of each jar.
runing your feed from your air pump through 1 hole in the 1st jar lid, down to the bottom of the jar. then another tube from the TOP (ABOVE WATER LEVEL) of that jar into the BOTTOM of the next jar, from the TOP of that to the BOTTOM of the next...... You can do this in a row with as many jars as you want.

If you do not get a tight fit with the air hose, you can silicone, or hot-glue the tubes into the holes for a better seal.

When you turn on the air pump the air goes to the bottom of the first jar, bubbling upin the water. Since the jar is air tight, the air is forced through the tube at the TOP of that jar, and down into the bottom of the next jar, and so on....

This way you can rotate, and clean the jars as necessary to have a constant supply of Brine of different stages...

By the way. To keep the Water warm, I just keep this whole setup under my reef tank, it is nice and warm down there in the cabinet, and there is plenty of ambient light from the lights under the cabinet.

I suppose you could use the submerge in heated water idea, or put a light next to it, if you don't have room under the cabinet.

Hope this helps....

Jamie