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I have been doing some looking on the net and youtube on brine shrimp. I went with the 2 liter bottle (why spend money when you dont need too) and none of my LFS had the eggs so I traveled 30 minutes away to my old lfs because they have everything and are awesome ppl.
I set everything up tonight and i put the eggs in. The baby brine shrimp once they are hatched should be small enough for week old fry from what I have seen and read.
Does anyone have any experience with hatching their own brine shrimp, if so can you share your experience with me. Any tidbits would be great!
Last edited by kittenface14; January 10th, 2009 at 11:17 PM.
I use the larger brine shrimp, so I do it a different way. I have 2 large gold fish bowls. One for hatching and one to keep the adults in. I start my shrimp in one bowl, I use Natural Sea Salt from the pet store (its for salt water aquariums) set the specific gravity(meter is cheap at the LPS) between 1.022 and 1.026 in dechlorinated water. set an air stone in the water and add the eggs. I use a 1/4 teaspoon per gallon. If you are only using the baby brine shrimp you can add more. when the eggs hatch the first 48 hours I do nothing. Then I will feed them I pinch of whole wheat flour or mix up a 1/4 teaspoon of active dry yeast and a splash of warm dechlorinated water. let this sit for 10 minuets before adding to the baby shrimps water. I feed everyday for 2 weeks. The bowl will be a mess with egg shells and crude from the feedings. At this point the shrimp are large, this is where the other bowl comes in. I use a regular fish net to scoop the shrimp out, the old eggs casing and crud fall through the net and only the shrimp come out. I add them to other bowl which also is set at the proper specific gravity and has an air stone going. I feed the yeast every day to the larger shrimp. Take note that the shrimp will multiply in the bowl, you will have large and small shrimp in the bowl before long. But only large ones come out in the net when time to feed my fish. To get the baby shrimp out, turn off the air stone. darken the room. set a small flash light at water level on the edge of the bowl. wait 5 minuets. then use some clear air line tube and your mouth to suck some of the baby shrimp into it, add this to you fry tank.
oops, left out some details, you can take a thin cloth such as a handkerchief, drain the tube into the cloth, rise with a little bit of dechlorinated water before dipping the cloth were the shrimp are into the water. That is if you don't want the shrimp water mixed into yours.
I have used a soda bottle, but not the same way you seem to have it, I just used it as it was.
I had the SF Bay brand premix packets and just followed the directions; put in 1L of water and the packet of salt and eggs and a small airstone and let 'er go. Haven't done the math, but it's probably more economical to buy the eggs and salt separately; can set your own batch size that way so less waste/uneaten ones that find hiding places and die.
After 24-48hrs (don't remember, been like 5 years since I've done it) I turned off the air and put a light near the bottom and let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then used an airline to siphon shrimp from the bottom into a fine mesh net, rinsed them off gently and put them into the tank.
I think I fed them basically all at once since they were newborn and the tank was pretty well stocked with something like 2-3 corys, 5ish rasboras, 10ish tetras,
I'm setting up my 29G again and bought some supplies online and got one of the SF Bay hatcheries that uses an inverted soda bottle for about $8; easy enough to use a couple for 'free', but i liked the solid base and built-in air hose barb for easy bottom siphoning.
My plan is to hatch them normally, stop aeration, skim the eggs, restart aeration (set low) and feed them for a few days with some activated yeast so they'll grow a bit.
That way I can space out the batch for a week or so and they get bigger shrimp as we go.
It seems like a good plan, but we'll see how it goes in a couple months when I'm fully stocked.
I have been thinking about this all day, to buy a critter tank and put the bs in there when they finally hatch and like you said feed them for a few days. Stock my own shrimp. I think that my guppies, mollies, and tetras will be in "aww" over them along with the fry I cant wait to see there little faces when they see them!
Now for the feeding where do I get this activated yeast?
Toxic mentioned a mixture of wheat flower and the yeast.
I've heard brewer's yeast is good, and may be available at the local grocery.
Regular yeast packets for baking may also be a possibility, haven't done that much research.
I personally have 1 except mine is different. I put mine in and i have left them in there since xmas day and some of them are adults now and there are billions of little babies.
Brewers yeast is better than active dry, but active dry is what I use the most since you can get it at any grocery store. I use a pinch of whole wheat flour when they are first born. This is not a necessity, but since I make my own bread, Have it in stock as you may say. Be prepared for a nasty looking water, you can judge if they need feeding by how clear the water gets, the more clear, the more they need feeding. the shrimp are a filter feeder, they filter the water to get there food. But its a whole new world watching guppies, mollies, angels, Platte's, tetra's, etc, going after the shrimp. They know good meal when they see it. Those hatcheries are good for baby brine shrimp, you will need to transfer to another container to feed and raise them to a larger size, they get up to a 1/4 of an inch in size in about 3 weeks.
Last edited by Toxic; January 11th, 2009 at 09:13 PM.
Well I went and got a decent size critter tank and removed the shrimp from the 2-liter bottle..that was a long process. I have already fed the fry and they were like little piranhas..Thanks for going along for the ride of bs hatching and ty for the tidbits!
i read earlier today that you cant use brine shrimp to feed tropical fish on a regular basis, anybody know if this is true? if so, how often can you feed them to tropicals?
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I cant wait to see there little faces when they see them! 
