Hatching and Raising Brine Shrimp

[Mick]

Brine shrimp are readily available in the pet stores, but what if we need to feed newly hatched brine shrimp for fry or even if we wish to raise them to adulthood so that a colony can be started for a never ending supply.

Brine shrimp hatchers are available to buy but even the simplest ones can run up a good price, save some pennies and make your own!!!

All you need is :-

1empty 2 litre plastic soda bottle
A length of airline
A flow restrictor valve
Aquarium salt

Carefully cut the bottle 2/3 of the way down from the top, the bottom piece will now act as the base.Turn the bottle over, making sure that the cap is fully on and place it into the base.Add 1 litre of warm water with a little aquarium salt and then place the airline into the water. Using the flow valve slow down the air flow until a steady stream of bubbles are emerging (1 bubble per second is fine) and your hatcher is complete.


Add half a teaspoon of brine shrimp eggs and place the hatcher in a warm room. The eggs should hatch after 12-24 hours and the baby shrimp can be syphoned out for use. Always turn off the airline and wait for 10 minutes before syphoning so that the egg cases will float to the top. To give your fish extra nourishment, feed the brine after their first moult ( this is normally 12 hours after hatching), infusoria or phyto plankton is ideal for this.


Raising the brine shrimp to adulthood is simply a matter of feeding them on a regular basis and oxygenating their water every now and again.
For this I move the baby brine to another small tank, filters are not required, just to give them more room.
Sexing brine shrimp is an easy matter, the males will have a pair of graspers at the front, these are used to hold onto the females while mating.

[rosst]

Great tips there - I went for an already-made Hatcher kit and I just feed the Fry the baby b'shrimp......I might try growing some to feed the Big Angels/Discus etc.... using your guidance tips
- I have plenty of other food for them to get through at the moment though!.... (Plenty of Yorkshire Beefheart, BloodWorm and Special Discus Granuals, Flake, + Cucumber etc.....)

....I stopped getting live foods - due to disease-related rumours and reduced availability, locally.

[POS_miniracer]

Nice useful post Mick.
And the timing couldn't have beeen better for me

[Mick]

start saving the pop bottles

[weirdartist]

would sea monkeys work?

[Mick]

Same thing, all Artemia!!!
Its cheaper to but the cans of brine shrimp eggs though

[weirdartist]

i was lead to beleive they were a cross between artemia and another thing.. still might get a kit at some point. more expensive but good if you dont have time to get hands messy making a bottle top thingy

[Mick]

There are several species of Artemia, not a lot of difference between them. Always try to get the cyst free eggs.

[shella]

[Mick]

Welcome to the forum firstly
You get a better hatch rate of brine shrimp with these