brine shrimp

[traveler911]

Okay here is a silly question. How the heck to you get brine shimp to grow.

I had sea monkeys as a kid, many many moons ago.

I have had a tank up and running for almost three years, and holding various fish, inverts, and what not.

The thing is I have had seahorses for several months and I have been feeding frozen baby brine for them. I have tried a couple of times to hatch brine eggs without success.

I am using salt water I pulled from from my tank. I have a heater and an airstone in place. I have done everything I can think of.

I am looking for any suggestions.

[JHardman]

Humm...

Tank water is not the best thing to use for cultures, be it BBS or phyto. Too many contaminates. I am not sure why you are using a heater; they are not needed unless the ambient temp is low. Not to mention where would you put one in a 2L bottle? An air stone is also not needed.

Start here...

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=135137

Then here...

http://www.seahorse.org/library/arti...miaGuide.shtml

If you want to get one of those nice little hatching stands...

http://www.marinedepot.com/a_food_sbhatch.asp?CartId=

HTH

[Louis Z]

I havent gone thru John's links yet but simply to rear to adulthood you will have to culture phyto.

[richardb42]

I was rasing a few hundred of them to adulthood every 2 weeks in a couple of 5 gallon tubs for a while. I fed them about 1 cup of phyto once or twice a day. The water salinity for adult brine shrimp should be lower than normal water, according to various sources. I don't remember the exact levels I was using but it may have been around 1.017 for the adults.

My clownfish really liked those buggers...

[Dace]

richard you said you were raisin the BBS to adulthood. did you ever keep them long enough to where they would breed and you hav som cysts to freeze dry for later on?

[Louis Z]

I believe that adults produce live young when peachy yet produces cysts in a deteriorating conditions - hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong.

[richardb42]

I think LouisZ is right.
My goal wasn't to raise generations of shrimp, but rather to raise generations of fat clowns.

[Dace]

i was just saying is it possible becuase the brine shrimp cyst collecting places hav been havin trouble due to a decrease in the amount in the water. just wondering if it was possible to raise BBS so you dont hav to worry about buying more and more cysts.

[Louis Z]

Dace I understand your idea. But I dont know how to go about inducing cyst production in artemia. I dont know if its temperature dependant or what but worth looking into. The artemia shortage is also worrisome to aquaculture companies that deal with thousands and thousands of fry. I have read in many articles that researchers are looking for alternatives to artemia to avoid high cost , poor quality and shortages. If you are raising juvenile fishes to adults or fattening up adult breeding pairs then you dont need to keep buying cysts. If you house and feed adult artemia they will in turn produce live young. Your culture can be then sustained by feeding them phytoplankton. There are alternatives to live microalgae but I think in the long run live microalgae is the cleanest way. Now if you are trying to get the larval fishes past metamorphosis then cysts are probably the only way to go.

[rayjay]

Growing Brine Shrimp is a pita, in my experience, but since I can't buy live brine locally, I raise them myself.
A page on my site will show and describe what I do to accomplish this labour intensive chore.
Raising Brine Shrimp
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