in tank brine shrimp hatcheries

[austinratboy]

Has anyone used one of those new brine shrimp hatcheries that is placed inside the tank? The one I saw has a tube where hatched BS swim out into the main tank. I am starting a 40 gal seahorse tank and wondered if that would be a good constant source of food for seahorses. I understand that BS have the nutritial value of iceberg lettuce and just wanted to use this contraption as a filler food.

[Guy]

Newly hatch BS still have a very nutritious egg yolk.

However.... beware the incredible amount of Nitrate released when BS hatch.

[Will]

in a 40 gallon tank, i'm guessing you'll have larger-sized horses (if you want dwarfs, you better reconsider hehe :D). i wouldn't go through the trouble of hooking one of those things up for one main reason: most larger horses simply ignore baby brine shrimp. i know mine don't pay attention it. they love adult brine, but the baby brine shrimp is just too small for them to see.
fourhand2

[austinratboy]

Im still researching species to use. What would be the prob w/ dwarfs in a 40? I was thinking of getting a dwarf species due to the low tank height ~ 15" after the dsb.

[Will]

there's really only one dwarf species available in the trade (Hippocampus zostrae).. occasionally you'll come across another that's hitchhiked on a gorgonian or something similar, but that's EXTEREMEMLY rare. that tank height isn't too low for medium-sized species such as H. breviceps, H. kuda, H. barbouri, etc. the largest practical tank to keep dwarfs in is 10 gallons. most people keep fairly large herds in smaller tanks than that. they cannot find their food in anything larger. flying fish express has a couple of the species that i mentioned that would work. they have captive bred specimens, which are a must. you might look into those..
fourhand2

[Mairi]

Forget the hatchery, it isn't appropriate for seahorses. The 40 will be a nice tank for any of the medium species, as 4hand suggests. A combo of barbouri, kudas and procerus will be very nice in that tank. These CB horses are trained to eat frozen foods and don't eat newly hatched BBS.

The problem with dwarfs in a huge tank like that is they will not be able to source their food. They will do well in anything up to a 10gal (in which you could keep about 20!).

HTH

[NHreefer]

I have a Pixie in with a seahorse I caought in R.I. They have been together 4 months now. The pixie eats daphnia. I bought a hatcher like your talking about, I have seen my large seahorse eat daphnia, so he might go for the new B.S.. I'll give it a try.
Chris

[Mairi]

Hi Chris,

Are you feeding your dwarf horse other foods as well? Daphnia are a sort of fresh water shrimp, and as such do not contain the correct proportions of nutrients for a marine organism. I highly recommend weaning him onto mysis shrimp - Hikari is a good brand as they are smaller shrimp. If he is eating frozen already, he should take to it fairly quickly.

Please don't use the hatchery inside your horse tank, the pH drop, nitrate and egg casings are all things you don't want being dumped in your tank. Hatch them in another container, rinse, and feed within 24 hours. If you want to feed older shrimp, ongrow then then enrich with selco for 12 hours proir to feeding out.

[NHreefer]

OK I wont put it in. I do feed Hikari Mysis to the big guy, I think they are too big for the pixie. The tank has about 200 bristleworms a piece of live rock, 4" southdown bed, a gorgonian and dead coral to attach in a 10 gallon. I only use an airstone. The tank was well cycled by my small octopus, before I moved him. I included a pic to show the size difference, the brown guy from Rhode Island is about 4" tall.
Chris

[FishGrrl]

If its the hatchery I'm thinking of (translucent brown, somewhat complicated looking, egg casings fall to a seperate compartment), then I was told by a distributor that carried it that if cleaned regularly, it won't affect water quality because of its design. (This was the FIRST question when I saw it in action at a trade show.) Whether or not this is true is another issue entirely, but I've meant to pick one up and test it myself to see for sure.


NHreefer - while I wouldn't try it out in the main tank, since you have one, it wouldn't hurt to test in a spare tank, and put the hatched bbs in with your pixie. If after a few weeks of regular maintenance the hatcher hasn't affected water quality, then I'd assume that the distributor I spoke to wasn't lying just to make a sale. :D

[Noonan]

When I had dwarfs (I plan on getting more, again)..I had them in a 10 gallon, and I would go away almost every weekend. What I did was...

-Took a film canister (has to be black) and I drilled 2 holes in it. One in the center of the lid, the other on the side..for a suction cup.

-Filled the canister with B.S eggs, and suction cupped it the side of the tank.

-Made sure it was upside down, so the eggs would float out.

The BBS would just swim out of the hole on the bottom when they hatched.

But that was for dwarfs, so I duno...