brine shrimp?

[lostduck80]

This might be a stupid? But is brine shrimp fresh water or salt water? when you hatch them can they stay and survive in your sump and be used as mandarin food or will they die off when they touch the salt water.

[JR719]

They are salt water. They also have no nutritional value. Sorta like you eating iceburg lettuce. You can do it, I hatch them and give to my fish as a "treat" every now and then.

[blitt]

They require a higher salinity than your tank so they will not live very long in your sump.

[luckyfish]

JR719 is correct, they are thought of as popcorn for fish.

[SexiShrimp]

how about brine shrimp that are carrying eggs? aren't they a bit on the nurishing side???

[rcmike]

The newly hatched brine are pretty nutritious but after they use up the yolk sack they aren't. The nutrition can be increased in older brine shrimp by gut loading them with suppliments prior to feeding. I doubt they would be a good long term food for a mandarin even if they were enriched though. Maybe if you could suppliment them with something else. They are very tolerent of different salinities and will do fine in tank water but they will be soon sucked up by the pumps so they won't be there long. They really just swim around aimlessly and are very clumsy so they are easy pump food. I use water from my tank to hatch them and feed to my seahorse fry.

[fishdoc11]

As stated adult brine shrimp contain a little protien and a lot of water. They can be fed Selcon and made more nutritious but relying on them as a sole source of food long term isn't a good idea. brine= very salty water
On a side note brine shrimp are what give flamingos their color:)

[Angela Short]

You are not planning this mandarin for the 29 are you? General concensious is thats not a good idea. They need a huge pod population with no fish compeating for the food source. They are beautifull but ussually starve a slow death in most tanks. As stated newly hatched brine are ok but older shrimp are junk food. I hear its a pain to grow your own on a regular basis, I have never tried tho. They sell brine shrimp hatcheries on-line, they might be easier to use.

[rcmike]

I didn't know that about flamingos.

Actually brine shrimp normally have live offspring but when the salinity is high they produce eggs that will hatch when the salinity decreases.

[Angela Short]

I didn't know that either! Cool.

[luckyfish]

MTRC; the epicenter of all interesting knowledge

[lostduck80]

Everything is in my 75g tank now with a 20-25g sump. I have about 50lbs if rock. ( a lot of the rocks I have drilled many 1/2" holes trough) and there are TONS of small fish like things that make a home inside of the holes. I also plan on hatching brine shrimp on the daily bases when I get a mandrian.

[lostduck80]

The bioload will consist of a lawnmower, one yellow tang, two nemos, one firefish, one drawf lion, a mandrian, and five clams with a variety of corals and shrooms.

[c_stowers]

The fish like things in the wholes are probably anthropods. I notice alot of them living in the holes of my rock. Hatching brine shrimp on a daily basis is going to be alot of work! Good luck with it!

[lostduck80]

their is a hatchery kit online that hangs on has a separate chamber for the eggs and when the shrimp hatches they will swim through a tube and into the main tank towards the light.

[Angela Short]

Yea I saw that, wonder if it works good, let us know. Glad the 75 is up and running. Got the clams yet? You made a sweet deal with that!

[danieljames]

Originally posted by fishdoc11

On a side note brine shrimp are what give flamingos their color:)

I thought it was shrimp? The big kind

[fishdoc11]

It's actually brine shrimp. Saw it on Blue Planet the other night. They seek out areas with high salt concentrations, ie brine to find brine shrimp. I had always thought it was the other kind too..... I'm sure no self respecting flamingo would turn down a good shrimp coctail though, I know I wouldn't:)

Lostduck,
Sorry I've sidetracked your thread. Sounds like you've got a plan. I would watch that dwarf lion though. I would imagine he would eat anything he could catch...could be wrong though.

Chris

[lostduck80]

I handfeed him feeder goldfish 1-3 everyday. I'm going to end up selling him becuase he cought a few of my peppermint shrimps (i really like the idea of pepperment shrimps reproducing in the tank.)

My fresh water guppies have just had babies two were pregnant the same time so i guess there are about 50 babies, with 30 baby albino snails. really great feeling looking at baby fish and tiny snails.

[fishdoc11]

Since you are selling him it might not matter but it's not good for lions to feed them freshwater fish (especially goldfish) very often. It ruins their liver and they will eventually die from it. If you ever saw the liver of a lionfish fed goldfish all the time it will be covered with fatty deposits.

There is a good chance a pair of peppermints will do that. I think c_stowers recently had his cleaner shrimp breed:)

Chris