Will unhatched Brine Shrimp eggs Pollute the tank?

[Kimmy]

I purchased some brine shrimp eggs to hatch out and feed to my corals. I put the eggs in saltwater, floated them in my small 20 gallon tank in a tupperware container with an airstone in it and KAZAM I have 1000's of baby brine shrimp!! I would say about 80% of all the little eggs hatched. Will it pollute my tank if I pour the baby brine in the tank along with a few of the unhatched eggs?? They are almost impossible to separate from each other. I put a small amount in the tank and my gobies went crazy!! My anenomes seemed to enjoy their turkey baster shot as well. I don't think any more of the eggs will hatch but I am letting them set for one more night to see if any more hatch out. This was my first time doing this so I am a little nervous about polluting my tank. Does anyone else do this on a regular basis and if so how do you separate the hatch eggs from the non-hatched or do you just let it all go in the tank. Help if you can!! Thanks...Kimmy

[Randy V]

Kimmy, I would try to seperate them out if you could. I have heard stories of fish ingesting them and messing up their plumbing. No first hand experience with that though. I also wouldn't recommend just pouring them into the tank as the hatch water is pretty dirty. What I do is to turn the aerator off until the live (swimming) baby brine seperate. The hatched shells will float to the top, the unhatched eggs will sink to the bottom, and the live babies will be in-between. Then you can siphon the babies through a net. They make baby brine nets whcih are almost as fine as cheesecloth. After they're in the net I rinse mine in clean water and then feed them to the tank. My opinion only.

[lcolon]

I purchased one of those kits that use an inverted 2 liter soda bottle. After the eggs hatch, you just let the water run out of the airline tubing (which is attached to the bootom of the bse) while the shells float to the top of the bottle.
I tried it and all the shrimp swim to the bottom of the bottle. Clean!!!

[chipmunk]

You can search FW boards for discus, angelfish and killifish forums...those people are brine shrimp hatching gurus.

I believe they use a small pinpoint light source, all the brine shrimp hatchlings swim and gather there, they siphon them out, 100% shrimp, zero % unhatched eggs.

-chipmunk

[OodleyBoodely]

Light is the key! The shrimp will concentrate around a light source, as Chipmunk stated. It works best if you work in a darkened room so that the light source is really bright and localized, then just siphon out, rinse, and feed.

[Kimmy]

I knew I liked you guys! Thank you! I looked at my eggs this morning and they are almost all hatched out. Do you have any idea how often or how much to feed the tank (corals). Can the newly hatched Brine be refridgerated and fed later or should a person only make enough to feed at a time? Kimmy

[OodleyBoodely]

Newly hatched brine should be fed as soon after hatching as possible, because, they quickly lose their nutritional value once thier egg yolk sacs are used up. To keep excess brineshrimp, you will need to either need to rear them as you would fish larvae with frequent feedings and very frequent water changes, or, you could freeze them. To increase their nutritional value, just prior to feeding to your tank, add a few drops of Selcon/Zoecon, some multivitamine and some phytoplancton to thier water. Let the shrimp feed on this mixture for 15-30 min. then strain shrimp and feed immediatly or freeze. Do not reuse the fortified shrimp water-it becomes a bacterial soup very quickly.

As to how much to feed, you'll have to figure that out by watching how much is actually being consumed and how much ends up in the filters. You can increase the amount actually eaten by turning off the circulation during feeding time and direct feeding by blowing shrimp through airline tubing.