12/06/2007 - Day 27
Finally some SUCCESS
Today my wife called me at work, almost hysterical...
"A baby came out, a baby came out!"
This time, it was fully formed, swimming around a bit, looked like a tiny replica of the adults. When I got home I fed it some newly hatched baby brine and it ate like a little pig
I managed to snap a picture of it... it looks orangeish due to all the brine naupli it had eaten:
It was about 1/4" long. Looked perfectly healthy. But where were the rest? The male still had a mouthful of something, that was for sure. I turned off the lights and went to bed figuring maybe he would let the rest out in the dark.
Changing the subject a little, let me just share this tip about hatching the baby brine.
I had gotten one of those cheapie hatch kits that is nothing more than basically an upside down pop bottle with the end cut off, and a plastic base with an airline so you can hook up an air pump to circulate the eggs... one of the things I was concerned about was how to keep the hatchery water warm enough to get a good yield of naupli. The instructions said to use a spotlight or incandescent bulb to heat the water. Well, I didn't have one of those handy, so I tried a different idea which ended up working out great. I put the hatchery in my
sump ... this way, the 78 degree sump water acted to heat the egg water in that pop bottle and keep the temperature constant. I had to drill a small hole in that plastic base to allow the air bubble trapped under the base to get out, and I filled the hatchery with enough water so the water level in the hatchery was an inch higher than the water level in my sump. This way the hatchery wouldn't act like a boat and "float" around the sump.
I have to say it worked like a charm. I got great full yields from the brine eggs, didn't need a light to mess with, when I needed to change the hatchery water I just lifted the whole thing out of the sump and added new water, salt and eggs to start the next batch.
Brilliant!