Seperating the brine shrimp from the shells and salted water

[showtime]

Is there a trick to this? I have to get a finer net than I have at present, but how does everyone else do it? Just pour the water through a net?

[Faran]

You can use a mans handkerchief or get a proper BBS strainer.

[dimebag]

i turn the air off for a few minutes, then siphon them out with an airline from mid-water, that way u dont get many shells.and yea just through a hankercheif or similar as blue said. its a good idea to rinse them in fresh water.

hope this helps

[showtime]

Thanks, that worked well.

What about storing them. A shallow container of salted water in the fridge??

[Luke*]

Do you mean growing out? The fridge is too cold they will die. Put in hot water cylinder with just a little yeast mixed into water. And of course use salty water. I use recycled coffee filters to strain mine, cheap and can keep reusing, reusing, reusing.

[2fishy]

my brineshrimp tank is painted black except for a small square on one of the sides, which i have a light shining thru from a lamp, and they get attracted to the light and when they have all bunched up there i siphon them all out with a airline hose thru a hankie and rinse the hankie in about half a cup of tank water and use a syringe to distribute them to the tanks.

[Faran]

I hatch the shrimp in a typical upside-down 2L bottle with airline through cap. Hatcher is sitting on a light hood which is always on, so keeps the water warm and provides light for the shrimp to hatch faster. When shrimp have hatched I move hatcher to a dark location and cover it. I return 10 minutes later and siphon - through the air line already installed - through a BBS strainer.

Once BBS are rinsed I distribute them in frozen brine shrimp containers and pop them in the freezer. This creates little BBS blocks which the fish eat as readily as they would live BBS - and freezing it seems to sterilize it from any nasties that I used to get when feeding live ones.

Mind you, when introducing fry to BBS I first feed live shrimp before moving on to frozen.

As you may imagine, I do a decent sized batch of BBS once or twice a week instead of it being a daily chore. Ice cubes can be chopped up to desired amount of BBS per tank.

I recommend 4mm in-line irrigation valves for use on the air lines.