Auto brine shrimp hatchery and feeder

[Paul B]

I often have to go out of town and with pipefish that only eat live newborn brine shrimp that is always a problem. I have a tank sitter that can feed the fish but I can't ask her to hatch brine shrimp every day and sit there while the pipefish eat for an hour so I designed this device which is not quite finished.
The internal mechanism is now sitting on top of the white box that will sit in the tank. (this is just for the picture) Once a day a trap door will open on top of the container and an auto fish feeder will deposit brine shrimp eggs into the container. The door will close keeping it dark inside and aeration will start inside the box. After 36 hours the eggs will hatch and the aeration will stop, a tube on the side will open allowing light in and the shrimp, who are attracted to light will swim out into the tank or I can direct them to my brine shrimp feeder. After a few hours, the tube will again close and the trap door on top will open allowing more eggs to be deposited inside and the process will repeat. All that is required for power is a small air pump which aerates and circulates the eggs and opens and closes the valve controlling the tube where the shrimp swim out. I tested the mechanism and all I now have to do is put it together and position the auto feeder on top which also opens and closes the trap door on top allowing eggs to enter.
Of course it works great on paper but I still have to test the entire thing.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Would love to see a video of this when it's all working.

 

[Arce]

More info / a video. Interested in this as i really wanted dwarf seahorses which only eat bbs.

 

[Paul B]

You don't need something as elaborate for seahorses. I hatch shrimp and separate the eggs in this every day for my pipefish, it just doesn't do it automatically. I only need this when I go away for a while.

 

[Arce]

The only thing thats stopped me from getting dwarf horses is the daily hatchings, to some how help automate it to some extent would definitely sell me on them.

 

[Paul B]

Hatching is easy, don't be a sissy. Just build a hatchery and your seahorses will love you forever

 

[radiata]

Are newly hatched brine shrimp really a suitable food for the ongoing maintenance of pipefish and dwarf seahorses? Seems to me that adult brine shrimp aren't especially nutritious, so I must ask if newly hatched BS are any better (unless maybe they've been gut loaded with uni-cellular algae?). I'd be more inclined to culture copepods for ongoing pipefish/dwarf seahorse maintenance. I recollect that feeding adult brine shrimp to seahorses will result in the seahorses turning to mush as the BS has no calcium content. Please correct me if you have found some more current information supporting your feeding regimen...

 

[Paul B]

Are newly hatched brine shrimp really a suitable food for the ongoing maintenance of pipefish and dwarf seahorses?

Not only are they suitable, they are almost a necessity. Most pipefish will not eat dead food and it is silly to "teach" them to eat dead food unless you want to give them a piece of dead food every 5 minutes as they are supposed to eat. I cringe when I hear people are trying to feed pipefish, seahorses or mandarins dead food as that is not what they were designed to eat. I am cringing now.
New born brine shrimp are totally different from adult brine shrimp as they are mostly yolk sack which is almost all oil and the best thing you can feed pipefish. Even better than living Mysis which are mostly shell.
You are also wrong somewhat about adult brine shrimp unless it are the ones you buy. If you buy them, they were never fed from the time they were collected or hatched and are just about only skin. But if you raise them as I sometimes do, they are a much better source of nutrition. I don't believe in gut feeding anything as a brine shrimp doesn't have much of a stomach and are a filter feeding creature. Any food they capture will be immediately used for energy. I have raised seahorse that I hatched on just brine shrimp that I also raised from eggs and also raised their babies to adulthood on shrimp. I even invented and patented a brine shrimp feeder for such fish.
http://www.saltcorner.com/Articles/Showarticle.php?articleID=26

Please correct me if you have found some more current information supporting your feeding regimen

I did not find this information as I get my own information from my own research from the last almost 60 years of doing this. This comes from experimenting and studying what I collect in the sea and the creatures I raise.
Scientific research is great but studies only last a few months or until the money runs out so it is very limited when dealing with creatures that may live over 20 years. Only your own study would yield usable information.
The following pictures are all the result of new born brine shrimp. If anyone thinks they are not very healthy let them post pictures of these types of fish spawning.

Pregnant blue stripe pipefish


Mandarins spawning


Clown gobies spawning.


Pregnant mandarin


3 fish eating new born shrimp from their feeder.


Almost born clown gobi

 

[jrjackson]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO47eWoDo6k

 

[Paul B]

Those little "in tank" brine shrimp hatcheries all work on the same principal and I have designed a few larger ones for my 100 gallon tank. It is simple to make such things, but I needed an automatic one that will also dispense the eggs into the device twice a day with no help from me, and keep changing the water because this is a vacation brine shrimp hatchery and feeder. I keep pipefish and they need to be fed a few times a day or even better continousely and this new device does that.

 

[Paul B]

The first batch of eggs hatched in the feeder and the pipefish and mandarins are all over it like a cheap suit. I love it. There is a dragon face pipe laying on the thing but he is white so hard to see, then there is a multi stripe pipe and the pregnant mandarin.

 

[TanksNStuff]

That's the same spot you put your old feeder in, isn't it Paul? That's probably why they are all gathering around it.

Again, would love to see some video of this thing in action.

 

[Paul B]

I can take a video, or you can put your face near your monitor and move your head back and forth. Dance

OK, I will try to do a video.
Here is a video of the other feeder in that spot. I will put this one back when I get home.

 

[Paul B]

I took a video of the thing working. The mandarins also hang out on it but they are afraid of me and run away as soon as I get near the tank. You can see the male mandarin to the left at the start but he leaves when he sees the camera because he got up on the wrong side of the tank today and doesn't like his picture taken.
The two pipefish just stay on it all day and every minute or so they can grab a shrimp. This works differently than my normal feeder in that the shrimp are expelled a little faster but more spread out during the day. They do that because they hatch all day long. The fish don't have to sit on it as they can constantly eat shrimp all around it.
It is a very natural way of feeding such fish and the large copperband also visits on every trip around the tank. You can see the funnel at the top with some water running into it to push the eggs down which they all do. The auto feeder is missing the hopper for the video.

 

[Paul B]

A better video

 

[TanksNStuff]

Looks like it works pretty good Paul! A ton of those shrimp get pumped out of there so it should keep your fish well fed while you're away.

Are you worried it might work too well though? How often does it release a new batch?

 

[Paul B]

Do I look worried? Dance
I let it put some eggs in once a day. It's as much as I normally hatch every day anyway.

 

[radiata]

Paul B,

That's a really nice collection of photos. But, are you suggesting that your Dwarf Seahorses get all the calcium they need from Baby Brine Shrimp? If so, what has been your experience with the life expectancy of the Dwarf Sea Horses you've raised on BBS from birth? And how many generations have you succeeded in rearing your Dwarf Sea Horses though with your live BBS diet?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Paul B]

I didn't raise Dwarf Seahorses, I used to raise full size seahorses like the ones here which I collected in the Atlantic. The female is transferring eggs to the male here in my reef. I raised those fry and one more generation on just brine shrimp. I hatched the shrimp and grew them as the baby seahorses grew. Brine shrimp are much healthier if you grow them than if you buy them because the store bought ones are never fed and don't have much meat on them.

 

[Xclusive252]

Hello all I am looking into putting together a sea horse tank and wanted to see if someone can help me make one of these? I am fairly good at DIYing myself just need a walk threw if they dont mind