Has anyone tried those brine shrimp hatcheries?

[Teremei]

Has anyone tried one of those brine shrimp hatching kits? I've seen them other places aswell. Some of them say 80% hatch. How long do they take to grow to an adult size? Has anybody experimented with adding brine shrimp colonies to their tank? Or are they meant only for adding during feeding time? one product looks like a more complicate hatchery while another is simply vacum packed eggs. But it does say they should hatch.

Any advice would be helpful. I would like to see my fish go after live brine shrimp instead of freeze dried. It would be for my entertainment as much as the fish.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/NavResults.cfm?N=2004+6115

[Scuba Oz]

I tried one of those stupid things, it for me was a waste of time, they were so small and ended up just dying. I even read the directions twice! matbe I just got a bad batch I dont know, but its in the rubbermaid container with the brand new seaclone I never used

[DASPES]

I agree, wasn't able to get mine to work at all. heck I couldnt even get mine to stay attached to the side of my sump, or the airline attached to the hatchery, or the... well I think you get the idea. IMO one of the homemade ones would have to work better.

[Teremei]

Well through searching I found www.brineshrimpdirect.com and some peeps here seem to say a few good things about them. They sell tons of stuff concerning brine shrimp hatching. I guess I need to know if anybody bought any of their hatcheries and which one if the best? Money is not a concern. If I have to spend $100 on a good hatchery, so be it. I think hatching brine shrimp and feeding to my fish would be fun!

[DASPES]

I sincerely hope you have better luck than i did.

[Scuba Oz]

I got mine from the LFS. So who knows if it was good to beging with:)

[fgarbrec]

It's very simple to hatch and grow brine shrimp. The easiest way is to use a 2L soda bottle, some salt water, an airline (easier if you use an attached rigid airline), and some good brineshrimp eggs. The KEY to getting this to work is to get GOOD brineshrimp eggs. The cheap ones have low hatch rates, and the more expensive ones have higher hatch rates. Bottom line is to forget the hatchery, put that money toward high quality eggs. The rest is a piece of cake. Put the eggs in the salt water, put the airline and bubble gently away and you've got baby brineshrimp in 24-48 hours.

[bertoni]

The sticky notes at the top of the breeder's forum contain pointers to more info on brine shrimp. I just use a 5g plastic tub and an airstone. The soda bottles are great, too.

If you want to raise them to adults, check the notes. Phytoplankton is the easiest food, IMO.

[Teremei]

Thanks for the tip Bertoni! I have a spare 10 gallon and might try raising pods! That's a very useful step by step guide!

As for brine shrimp someone reccomended a "hatching dish" at www.brineshrimpdirect.com

You don't even need light, air, anything. It even seperates the brine from the cysts. She said it's really great! I ordered one anyway, it's only $14.95. Worth a shot.

[blossom]

I work in a uni where we grow brine shrimp for our fresh water fish. If the air pipes get blocked up then no shrimp hatch, so I don't see how that one could work very well.

[tooshay]

I have been using the hatching dish, and I don't know how, but it works GREAT!!!! It is a dish that has has dividers in it that the newly hatched shrimp swim under and over to get to the open center where the ambient light shines in. No air pump is used, and in less than 20 hours I have more shrimp than I know what to do with. It isn't the kind that goes into the tank or sump, but rather it just sits on my kitchen counter. There is a little netted scoop in the center and there is absolutely NO empty shells or unhatched eggs that make their way into it- only BBS!

[BillnJennh]

tooshay, about how big a scoop of cysts are you using. This would be a perfect tool for anyone keeping dwarf seahorses, as their main food is BBS. Also, how big is this hatching dish?

[tooshay]

The dish is about 12 inches across and the scoop holds not quite 1/4 tsp cysts. I got it to feed a baby cardinal, but I feed BBS to all my tanks now after the lights go out at night.

[BillnJennh]

Thanks... That sounds perfect.

[Teremei]

This is great. I have learned alot here. I've went from knowing nothing about brine and pods. And now I might be growing pods and brine for my fish. What a wonderful place this is. ::tears::

[lanamarks]

Hmmm, I was thinking about starting a dwarf seahorse tabk (2.5 gal nano). This would be great for me!

[lanamarks]

That's pretty large isn't it?

[BillnJennh]

lanamarks, that is the same thing that I'm thinking now, also. I did dwarves a while back, but I couldn't find a way to make the BBS hatchery "look" better than it did. My wife didn't like the gurgling water bottles, so I got away from the dwarves all together. Now, with this being a much nicer and neater way to hatch BBS--maybe I'll start another foray into dwarves again.

[lanamarks]

I talked to someone on another post and he said that he adds decapsulated eggd directly to his tank and when they hatch they get eaten. Anyone else ever tried this?

[chase2931]

I just order a hatcher from www.brineshrimpdirect.com. Do I keep the eggs in the freezer?

[Teremei]

Chase, yes you want to keep the eggs in the refrigerator, not the freezer. Just make sure you close the can very tight each time. I ordered my dish hatchery from there too, and I get mine in this week. Can't wait to try it!

Just curious do you think small fish like chromis and percula will take to baby brine shrimp? What about peppermint shrimp?

[chase2931]

I don't know I hope so. I have 2 baby clowns and a Bagahai cardinal plus 2 smaller gobies. I not real sure how small the BBS are going to be. I wonder if my Feather duster will eat them or will they be to big.

[tooshay]

Feather dusters eat phytoplankton, not meat :)

[Teremei]

Chase, I do not even have baby percula. I have 5 chromis (2 going back tommorow in exchange for 2 occelaris percula). Those are both rather small fish.

The adult brime shrimp is like 1/8th of an inch. I think baby brine are like 1 milimeter. Less than 1/16th of an inch. I hope my small fish eat them otherwise the baby brine will be floating around my system until they die and spike my bioload I'm sure.

[yellow_tang2009]

If i have too many hatch can i put them in a 10g tank with saltwater with a airstone and feed them yeast?

[ratched]

I have raised LOTS of Angel fish babies that require them as their first food. The "leftovers" each day were given to my clowns and blenny. They went nuts over them. The only thing is I had high nitrates for a bit. Giving them too much, I guess.

[Teremei]

Well it's good to hear someone succesfully feeded baby brine to clowns. Maybe mine will eat them. STILL waiting. STILL can't wait to try it!

[ratched]

My fish like it MORE even than cyclopeze. If you have some phtyo You can feed a tiny am't to the bbs , it will make it a little more nutritious for your little guys. i don't keep it more than 24 hrs. after hatching. Good luck with your hatchery. Sounds nice. I use a pickle jar and airstone. ( ghetto style ). As someone mentioned, the success is the quality of the eggs, imo. i bought a 1 lb. can from the same place. They have a really good hatch rate. That can goes a LONG way, enough eggs for several years, I think.

[gaels]

i had one. it was the kind that attaches to the side of the inside of your tank and slowly trickles the brine out into the tank. i got it so i could feed a very small baby clown that couldnt even eat flake food. it came with a vial of cysts in water. it worked very well for me. i think it cost me about $15 at dr fosters online

gael

[spjeff69]

So, if you use the dish...do you just dump the shrimp in the tank? Wouldn't it be too many?

[tooshay]

No, you don't dump them in at the same time. It has a little net that the shrimp swim into, and you can tranfer any extra into a separate container for later feedings.

[yellow_tang2009]

I just ordered some off of brine shrimp direct and the hatching tray. i cant wait for them to come in

[chase2931]

I order mine a week ago and I have made one batch of BBS. My question is how long are you keeping them in the hatching tray? And after what are you putting them in?

[tephanis]

mine don't even swim into the net... the meshed cup floats... it is almost always above hte water line

[tooshay]

tephanis, make sure you tilt the net basket as you put it in the water to make sure a bubble doesn't get trapped underneath it and make it float. Mine sinks right to the bottom.

chase. I take the BBS out with the net scoop as soon as they look thick, and put them in an aerated tupperware container. Then I add a few drops of Selcon and feed them to my tank as I need them.

[tephanis]

hmm... are they to small to be fed to bigger fish? I'm not sure if they do my fish any good! they are soooo tiny!

[Ironsheikh]

they have those shrimpery 1000 that hatch 2million to adulthood in 2weeks-- but most breeders on the betta sites Ive seen just do the 2 litre bottle

[tephanis]

so dump them in a 2 litter bottle.. feed them... and they will grow? is this hatchery dish even neccessary?

[bertoni]

They'll grow, but you'll need to use Amquel or do some sort of water-quality management. The hatchery dish is redundant.