Under used food

[Paul B]

I would like to start a thread about another under used food source. New born brine shrimp. These cheap, easy to hatch foods about the only food available for small fish like Pipefish, dwarf seahorses, small gobies and cling fish. I see people buying these fish all the time and have no Idea how to hatch shrimp.
For about $5.00 you can hatch shrimp every day for a couple of months. These fish really will not live long without this food. You can of course buy frozen brine but they rot almost immediately and the types of fish that need this type of food really need it constantly or at least more than a few bites. Those fish are designed like mandarins to eat all day. I know people say thair tank is full of pods and thats great but pods are for the most part crawling animals, many fish need to catch their prey in the water column.
I have been hatching baby brine for about 40 years and have designed a hatchery that seperates the eggs, you can also buy them at a LFS.
You don't want the egg shells in your tank because they will float around forever.
The shrimp take about 36 hours to hatch depending on the temperature and should be fed the day they hatch but they can be kept if you feed them either Selcon or any commercially available coral food. The shrimp do not eat the first day but they are filter feeders from then on. My pipefish have been spawning for a couple of years on shrimp and it also keeps the smaller gobies in breeding condition. I also would not be able to keep cling fish without the shrimp. Even the bangai cardinals eat them although I don't know how they even see them.
Many corals also will eat baby brine shrimp.
Paul
Clingfish:

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/13094Cling_fish_006.jpg

Gobi
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/13094Clown_gobi.jpg

Bluestripe pipefish (pregnant)

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/13094Pregnant_pipefish.jpg

[UntamedBreez]

sounds good!

Can you include how you have your hatchery set up?

[Paul B]

There used to be a picture of it on here. It is just an acrylic box about a quart capacity' like a milk container laying on it's side. There is a black partition in the center seperating the two halves. The top is open. One side is black and the other side is clear. There is a 3/8" hole in the partition.
The shrimp eggs are put in the black side and the hole is plugged, when the eggs hatch I put a black cover on the black side and unplug the hole. I put the thing in the light and the shrimp swim from the black side to the light side through the hole. In 15 minutes all the shrimp are on the lighted side and all the egg shells are on the black side. I plug the hole and suck out the shrimp with a large baster or I siphon them out.

[davidryder]

Thanks for the great info. I suppose it's not possible to sustain them in the aquarium/refugium?

[Paul B]

It is possable but not worth it. I have raised them to adult size, it takes a few weeks but the new born shrimp are the most nutritious before they lose their yoke sack.
Paul

[papagimp]

fwiw, I like to have a constant culture running. I know the adults are not as nutrituous but with the right set up, you can have all the adults you want giving live birth to new nauplii daily, and with a little work and a brine shrimp net, you can grab out the babies as needed and/or gut load those that require it. I've kept self sustaining cultures going for 6 months with no real work involved. Alternatively, when I'm not culturing them specifically for adult shrimps, I can use the little hatchery I picked up at Petsmart, the one witht he little black box and small collection container that fits upside down in the top....if you ever seen one. anyways, they allow you to collect the new nauplii quickly, effectively, and without all the nasty hatching water.

As Paul B. metioned, they can be used to feed bangaii's, My breeding pair would get fed lot's of adult nauplii (gut loaded) to help induce spawnings while their offspring would gobble up all the new nauplii that I could feed em.

Heres an example of how well they can see them Paul :D It's a week old baby bangaii holding a brine shrimp (you can see the tail end sticking out his mouth) Trust me, he had no trouble spotting this guy from across his tank and rushed to get him.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4481/123821hungry_bangaii_baby.jpg

[conefree]

That's pretty cool, thanks for the info! If you wouldn't mind, could you please post some pics?

[honda2sk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10343490#post10343490 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Paul B
I also would not be able to keep cling fish without the shrimp.
Clingfish:

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/13094Cling_fish_006.jpg


Great post PaulB. I have a pair of clingfish thriving in my tank but I do not feed brine shrimp. Their key to survival in my tank is their symbiont long-spined black sea urchin. I have three of them in my system, with two in the sump and one in the display at all time. I alternate them because the clingfish would make quick work of them if they both had to feed off the same one non-stop. I rotate them about once a month so that they can recoup in safety in the sump. It seems they eat off all the edible parts after a while and stop picking at them so I know its time to rotate. Take all of two seconds with a pair of gloves.

Plus its really neat to see them swim in and out and about the long spines not getting stung. Almost as interesting as the famous snapping shrimp/goby combo.

[Paul B]

Honda long spined urchins are very important to these fish and are usually needed for long term survival. The younger clingfish feed almost exclusively on the urchins while the older ones suppliment their diet with other things but they still snack on urchins.
I had a problem and my urchins died also I broke my boat propeller this past weekend so I can't even dive for urchins.
My clingfish eat baby brine but I doubt they will live for long without some urchins which I will have to replace as soon as I get the time.

I know what you mean about watching them swim in between the urchin spines, I get those dam spines stuck all over me while I am diving and concentrating on something else :smokin:

[Fraggle Rock2]

I read a thread a while back about someone using old 35mm film cases to hatch shrimp inside their tank. I believe they put a small hole in the container and threw in some eggs and tossed it in the back of their tank. I assume they removed it once they hatched and continued with the cycle.

It sounded like a good idea to me, but I haven't done any culturing of this sort. Was wondering what you thought about that?