pepetj

I've read (don't ask me where I can't find it) that hatched brine shrimp nutritional value has been successfully tampered to improve it significantly. Anyone have ideas as how this is done?

I hesitated on the proper forum for this question since this is like a DIY question about food. Then thought the food experts likelihood of visiting the food forum more than the DIY so here it is.

Thanks
Pepe
Santo Domingo

ray_sj

I think they just feed the brine shrimp spirulina powder (or other supplements) to improve the nutritional value. The fish eat the brine shrimp and get the added benefit of the spirulina as well.

I think they sell some frozen brine shrimp that have already been enhanced this way.

Pandora

Yep, it's pretty much just gutloading them with whatever you want your fish to eat. You need to wait for their first molt and older, since the newly hatched larvae live off their yolk sac and don't feed (why their nutritional value declines over time... all the good stuff for the fish is in the yolk!), so if it's for fry you have to take care in terms of sizing since tiny fish that can handle newly hatched larvae might not be able to take the slightly larger feeding stage larvae. Can be done with adults too of course! There's a few commercial products available for enriching, some with fatty acid mixes, spirulina powder, as was mentioned, and whatever other stuff might be good for your fish. And yes, there are spirulina enriched frozen adult brine shrimp by Hikari, my bettas rather loved them.

pepetj

I've been reading around, thanks for the spirulina idea.

These is what I shall do: Hatch brine shrimp (actually doing so) and set two small containers (say two 2gal plastic tanks, bare bottom, no cover) running with a small sponge filter each (will use seeded sponge from a recently cycled low-end brackish tank).

The idea is to let some of the just hatched brine shrimp to grow in those tanks, using one at a time. After two weeks (likely two water changes a week), the surviving brine shrimp are moved back and forward between tanks, some are collected and placed in a different container with water from their tank and fed extensively within hours of using them to feed other fish (e.g. my Opossum pipefish) as newly hatched brine shrimp replaces those used -and then some.

I might need more than two small tanks but that's not a problem due to this MTS thin (a blessing) I have.

Baker's yeast, multivitamins, and Spirulina powder seem to be the way to go. I found out (reading) that brine shrimp are filter feeders -they will eat anything they find available, whether nutritionally valuable or not.

Pepe
Santo Domingo