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Brineshrimp


clarkeymaster

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heh, I just got home from Hollywood with a "hatching kit" which is basically an overpriced stand for a 1.5L coke bottle and some airhose. (however I needed something in a hurry, so was happy to pay)

add water, salt, baking soda (I believe from another thread on here), air pump and keep it warm, and 24 hours later things should be all shrimpy :)

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After the first week of life, they must move to a large container (plastic or glass—no metal) with a new water supply prepared using this formula:

4 liters of water

250 ml of rock salt

30 ml of Epsom salts

15 ml of baking soda

Food: For food, a pinch of baker's or brewer's yeast once a week should be fine. Mark the water level on the container. As water evaporates, add more tap water—not salt water—to keep the salt concentration the same. Put the container near a window or under a light during the day and watch the brine shrimp grow. Adult brine shrimp can be purchased from a tropical fish store. Keep your light levels low as they are phototropic and attacted to light, and can use to much energy, (growth,) chasing the light.

Syphon often, as they moult many times growing to maturity, and replace the waste water with the same salinity water.

Alan 104

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Why don't you BBS hatchers just use a coke or similar bottle.

Drill two holes the size to be tight on an airline, in the lid, and use two pieces of airline.

One to the botton; air in.

The other 25mm or so into the bottle; air out.

This can connect to another bottle, etc, until the required numbers of hatchers are available.

I use three this way, and run the waste air to an airstone in a tank.

Use a heated small tank to keep the bottles in and the the temp up around 26oC. At this temp they will be well and truly hatching in 24 hours or less.

To feed out.

Turn off air, let eggs settle, and syphom out the pink/orange mass thru a hankie, or about that mesh.

Return water to the hatchery until the need to start another batch of eggs.

Didn't need to pay that $35.oo did you.

Alan 104

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After the first week of life, huh? This stuff is small....I didn't realise it MADE it to the first week of life? do you leave the hose/air stone on? The closest I have had to success was a small cokebottle with the hole in the lid for the airtube and I floated it in a heated tank (and left the light on it because I had heard that helped the eggs hatch....once hatched i had a hell of a job getting them out! lol....I used a length of soft hose to siphon them out into a paper towel but of course they were smaller than specks of sand....so if i left them in the bottle....with the air on...they should continue to live/grow? at what stage should i feed the baby brine shrimp something to keep them going...and i can see the changing of the water could be a tricky task. I would REALLY like to get this working for my fishies...have yet to do it successfully. The frozen brine shrimp is ok....but I don't have a spare $7 at the moment...and it doesn't last long...have only about 1/2 a lil tube of eggs left to practice with and if i haven't got it sussed by the time the tube is emty i will not buy more to try again.

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The air must be on all the time when hatching except when harvesting.

To change the water, throw away the water you have syphoned thru the mesh and replace with fresh.

The dearest way to buy B/S eggs is in those little bottles or tubes.

Prolly about 600 to 800 $'s a pound. Maybe more.

What did you pay and what was the quantity??

At the moment I have some for sale in the Private Trade Section.

But 1lb tins only.

Get a group together and share it if it is too dear for the first up buy.

It keeps almost indefinately closed and in the frig.

Alan 104

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Thanks Alan. I think I paid $10 for it through trademe...with about a teaspoon used....just a small glass vial about 3 inches long and maybe 6/8 inch across....that size retails at about $14. I just wanted to try it to see if I could do it successfully before investing in a larger quantity. I do like giving brineshrimp to my fish :) I will carry on with your advice and give it another go..... hopefully we will be a little more financial within the next few weeks/months so I can get some white worm culture and give that a go to. :hail:

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Why don't you BBS hatchers just use a coke or similar bottle.

Didn't need to pay that $35.oo did you.

Alan 104

As I said, I was in a hurry after work and I have killie fry that I'm currently feeding with bbs that I'm hatching in a non-bottle way (read : utterly crap yields but enough to keep em alive).

So I took a drive, and got a stand pre-made, I definitely would recommend DIY however :) Joys of working >40 hour weeks and looking after fish.

Any hints on how to keep coke bottle warm without putting it in a tank?

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Hot water cupboard.

But you'll need a air pump there as well.

Or if your fishroom is heated, that is enough.

Have a look at EJ's room in the Fishroom Thread.

You'll see his setup at the end of the room.

Shelley, do you know the weight of that vial.??

Another thing with the B/S eggs bought in those small quantities is that you don't know how old it is,

or even if it was kept in the right conditions.

So don't judge the eggs you get like that with the ones you can get thru here.

Cees also had some but he's sold all of his cans, and the ones I've sold, I've had no complaints,

and I've just started a tin myself and the hatch rate is amazing.

Especially compared to the old tin I had that I got from someone else ages ago.

Alan 104

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I have recently bought a big tin of bbs and now I'm really committed to working out how to do it that suits me. It is a real pain but with trial and error I'll get there. The easiest way I have at the moment is with a san fransisco bs hatchery - not a coke bottle type but a black plastic cube with a clear freash water vial on top. It is great except the eggs aren't under airation - and I guess its other problem is that the shrimps come up into freshwater where they last up to around five hours.

However I'm getting tired of sucking in saltwater :evil: when i have to syphon them out of a coke bottle type apparatus. One like on the wall in EJ's room looks like the go - might be this weekends project. Then you can just drain the shells off the bottom and your straight into shrimp leaving the eggs on top. And you can't beat the hanky - paper towels and tissues just suck.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got me some eggs also on the weekend and I have got a hatchery all set up using an airpump and two coke bottles but my main problem is keeping them warm. I can't put them into the tank (container that is). I know that heat is important for fast hatching but is it necessary?

Cheers

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Definately not PJ.

But like you say, there is a bigger Hatching time variation, from a nice warm enviroment to a cold climate.

The NZ eggs come from lake Grasmere just south of Blenheim and that can get really cold.

Their ponds are seething with them.

It is the area where they have big shallow lakes that evaporate and leave salt for harvesting.

Alan 104

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So I can go with out a heater just that it will take probably two days for them to hatch??

The brand eggs that I have are called Aqua Chem, they are in a little black and yellow box.

Well I will give this batch that I have done another day and if nothing has changed then I guess I will have to go to a heated system of some sort.

Cheers

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they may or may not hatch, never tryed to hatch then cold, and if they do

will they hatch at once or slowly over time - if slowly over time, I would concider that a pain in the you know what.

I hatch 4 teaspoons a day and I need them to be relyable(ready when I want them ).

other wise your just playing and as I have said it'll be a pain ... .

If you want to hatch b/s as 1 of your fish foods then surely you would want them on demand?

don't you?

If yes then you will need to hatch them between 24C and 28C, 16 to 24 hours to hatch.

the hoter it is the quicker they will hatch.

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I was wanting them to feed to my fry as I want to make them grow quicker than they currently are so then I can start selling them either via trademe or to my pet store or I will become over run with fry that take for ever to grow. But I have also heard that feeding them brine shrimp only causes problems yet there are people that do it and have no probs at all. I was hoping to feed them to my fry today but its just not working and I am unable to get a heater and my husband is hitting the roof as he thinks I done this on purpose as an excuse to get yet another tank. So as you can see I am kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The container also says to keep them below 4*C so will in the fridge be ok?

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Because the husband said it will look damn ugly in my main display tank. Which is the only one that is deep enough to do it. What about a light with a heat lamp in it? Would that do it? I have been told that thoes sorts of lights have UV in it which will cook the eggs? Just an idea that I thought I would get a second opinion with.

I feel like I have gotten myself into more than I can handle here :cry:

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