Hatching brine shrimp

Dankie Hennie!

 

I decant the brine from the hatchery into a jar and allow it to settle. The shrimp are mostly in the middle. Then I take a turkey baster (bought at @home) and suck up some. These get squirted onto a coffee filter paper and then rinse a few times with aquarium water to get rid of the brine. Then the filter gets turned off and once the water has settled I either drop them in above the fry and they sink to the desired area or I put the shrimp in aquarium water, suck them up in the baster and squirt them where I want them. But if you get too close to the fry the mother Apisto grabs the fry in her mouth and moves them into the cave.

 

Thanx prof, that makes sense. I know freezing is bad (I kept snakes), but didn't think it is that bad. Oh well, by the time I can afford some time and space for breeding tanks, I will be able to hatch some BBS regularly as well...

 

So here is what I did, Nescafe coffee jars, works like a charm. Tried it in my guppy tank and out (temperature regulation).

Using 2 teaspoons of salt per 600ml of water. At 26 degrees they hatch within 12 - 15 hours! Room temperature (cold!) they hatch between 24 and 36 hours, but the hatching % not that great.... got myself a dedicated tank to put my jars in.

 

sorry for the silly question, but why would you have a dedicated tank to put your jars in? can't you just put the brine shrimp in the tank directly?

 

Fish being fish they will eat the eggs before they hatch, and the egg shells are bad for the fish's digestion. Also this method has proper flow and aeration which will maximise hatching %. This is secondary however, firstly it is that the shells are not to be given to the fish....

 

I float my jam jar in my 3ft tank at 27c and works great for me

 

thanks, but I meant was in your post you stated that you want to get a dedicated tank to put your jars in, is there any reason why you would get a dedicated tank to put your jars in?

 

I bought myself the Serra Hatching Kit which I found very useful, the only item I had to get was to 2 x 2L platic bottles. I opt for the 1.5L plastic bottles, I have 2 of them running, I placed them inside my hospital tank as keep the heat constant and harvest them immediately when they hatched. What ever is left I feed them to my adult bettas. I bought myself the Ocean Nutrition Baby Brine Shrimp Liquid also works but must be introduced as early as possible as these fry have identity crisis. I usually run my 2 hatcheries 12 hours apart so that their is fresh newly hatched brine shrimp available. As a salt replacement, I use Red Reef Salt as I am always mis-judge myself on the about of aquarium salt I need. With this kid it includes a scoop to catch the baby brine shrimp as they are pushed through the hose attachment by the air pump into the scoop and I can rinse well under tap water and then feed fry and adults.

 

I would strongly advise against using this teaspoon measure of the salt, this is far too inaccurate and if you look at the price of bs eggs then this is false economy. Buy yourself a hygrometer which is like a thermometer that floats in the water, these are sold for marine fishes, and then you add salt so that the salinity of 1.020. If you use this salinity you get the highest percentage hatch possible, and it works like clock work each time.

Kind regards,

Dirk