COBettaCouple

i have 2 boxes that i'm using to grow the atermia cysts in, then i harvest a portion of the BBS 2x a day.

armadillo

Small boxes, right? I mean, we're not talking sell your house and get yet another tank, are we?

I heard some toy stores sell artemia cysts as sea monkeys. Would these do? Would that be unnecessarily expensive and if so, where did you get the cysts yourself? What sort of maintenance/feeding is needed to grow them?

Is it a lot of work?

COBettaCouple

yea, just those little hatchery boxes you can buy at the store. i buy tubes of the cysts from the website we get our stuff from.. through experiments, i think i've got the proper amount to use per hatching of 1/2 tsp eggs, 1 tbsp aquarium salt, nearly 4c of treated tap water. i just put that in and stir it up, then use air stones to keep them moving around. once they start hatching, then i just will 2x a day turn off the air and wait 10 minutes for things to settle, then put the collection container over the hole in the box and their instinct to go towards light causes them to swim into the container. once i collect enough for the fry to eat, i take the collection container and pour it into their tank and start the air stones running again.

i'm currently running 2 as i want to have 'backup' in case of problems, spills, etc.. as my experiments proceed, i'll figure out how long each batch of BBS will feed the fry for and perhaps not always run 2 hatcheries - to extend the supply of artemia cysts.

armadillo

Something like this? http://www.aquariumwinkel.nl/. From the menu list on the left, click on artemia, then look at the second to last item on that page ('kweekschaal'), the blue breeding box. Would that be a rip off and a basic tupperware would do?

I am also surprised at the look of the box the eggs come in. Why are they air tight tins? Are the eggs in a liquid medium? I thought they were dry cysts kept in basically airtight packaging.

Oh, and what fish require/like artermia? Would it be good for molly adults, fry, and otos?

Do you know what? Starting a thread on this.