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brine shrimp live

B

beerfish

What item are you looking for? You just posted the main site link. If you're looking for live brine shrimp, I'd be happy to help get you started culturing them.

I used to put up a new batch about once a week and will probably start again once the tank is ready, it's easy, takes up almost no room and requires almost no equipment.
 
T

tbone212371

Why don't you get a brine shrimp hatchery.. and harvest your own..
They are inexpensive..
Or just culture your own pods or rotifiers that is quite simple to do...
even in a small containers and cheap light and phyto..
 
R

rafal07013

i am looking for live brine shrimp --- any advise on how to culture them would be nice.
where do you get brine shrimp hatchery?
how do you culture pods or rotifiers?

links, help, anything is welcome.
 
B

beerfish

rafal07013 said:
i am looking for live brine shrimp --- any advise on how to culture them would be nice.
where do you get brine shrimp hatchery?
how do you culture pods or rotifiers?

links, help, anything is welcome.
Click to expand...

If you've never cultured anything before, I'd start with the brine shrimp. Culturing rotifers and pods requires a steady supply of phytoplankton, which means first starting a culture of phyto. Brine shrimp should be fed within 24 hours of hatching. After that they lose their nutritional value. In addition, it's good to soak them in something such as selcon to increase their nutritional value to your fish.

I've also cultured phyto and if you decide down the road, I can give you some good tips on that as well.

I find that a hatchery is basically unnecessary and very easy to DIY. What you'll need are:

2-2 liter soda bottles
Small air pump
Air tubing (soft and rigid)
Brine shrimp eggs
Brine shrimp net
Selcon (for added nutrition)

Clean the 2 liter bottles out well.

Drill a hole in one of the soda bottle caps just big enough to squeeze the rigid tubing through. You want this tight so that it doesn't leak and can glue it a bit if necessary. You want the rigid tubing to stick out through the cap about 1" on the inside, and about 3/4"-1" on the outside. Attach the soft airline to the end of the rigid tubing on the outside of the cap.

Cut the first 2 liter bottle in half (depending on how you cut it, you may only need one). Screw the cap on the top half and flip it upside down. Now with the soft airline coming down from the cap and up the side, put the top in the bottom half of the bottle. If it fits and is stable, no need for a second bottle, but otherwise, cut the second bottle so that it will hold the top stable when full of water.

You're done making the hatchery.

Now to get some shrimp going...

Fill the inverted bottle top with the same quality saltwater you'd use in your tank. Salinity can be as low as 1.021 and as high as 1.027, but I try to culture between 1.023 and have had great results. Attach your air pump to the end of the tubing and turn it on. You want to have a steady stream of bubbles rising to the top, but don't want a jacuzzi in there. You can get a small valve that will relieve the pressure if your air pump is too big. Now add your shrimp eggs. They are smaller than you think! You can basically take a pinch between your fingers and you'll have plenty of shrimp in no time.

The hatchery's sold are darkened so that the shrimp will swim to the top for the light, but there is no reason to keep your hatchery dark, as you'll be collecting them with a net.

In 24-48 hours, you'll notice little Artemia (baby brine shrimp) swimming around. At this point, you can shut the air pump off and add selcon to the water. The shrimp will feed on the vitamins making them a healthy and tasty treat for your fish.

With the air pump off, the remaining shells will settle down into the bottle cap and you'll be left with water teeming with brine shrimp. Now dip your net in, grab some shrimp then empty them into the tank!

I'll see if I have my old DIY culturing containers anywhere and try to get pics. It makes more sense when you can see it.
 
R

rafal07013

thank you. pics would great. where were you buying your brine shrimp eggs? i go to my lfs to get live brine shrimp, but i was wondering if i can make them myself. my 4 fish love them and i try to stick to once a week regime.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
We are currently running a live brine fish culture as we speak. We went to petsmart and bought a 1 gallon tank with an airstone for 15 bucks. We bought the brine shrimp eggs at Tropiquarium. You basically add saltwater and the eggs and wait a few days. Also, a very fine net helps with adding them to the tank. It might cost you 25$ total but it is worth it in the long run. We don't have pictures, but just close your eyes and picture a gallon of water with an airstone in it and boom there is your brine shrimp culture.
 
R

rafal07013

ok, a few more questions:

a) does it need a light to hatch?
b) what else can you "culture" yourself to improve fish/corals diet?

i have seen how zoas were reacting after such feast - i mean they grow like weeds. I will definetly go and explore my own brine harvesting over the weekend.

thank you for all suggestions.
 
B

beerfish

The green stuff is phytoplankton. I've cultured phyto in large quantities and it's necessary for raising rotifers, and copepods. It can also be dosed directly into the tank to add food for some corals that don't get their food entirely from photosynthesis.

The danger of dosing phyto in your tank is that it requires high levels of phosphates and nitrates in order to grow, and they are too small to easily separate from the nutrients. There are ways around this, but at some point, culturing becomes an additional hobby!

I own a centrifuge and when culturing phyto to dose directly in my tank, I put in into the centrifuge, spin it down to pull the single celled phyto out of the water, drain the water and add RO water. Voila! Nearly NO4 and PO4 free fresh phyto!

You can also culture Mysis, but it's much more difficult, and requires a healthy rotifer culture, which requires a healthy phyto culture which requires more time, money and effort.... you get the idea!
 
B

beerfish

rafal07013 said:
ok, a few more questions:

a) does it need a light to hatch?
b) what else can you "culture" yourself to improve fish/corals diet?

i have seen how zoas were reacting after such feast - i mean they grow like weeds. I will definetly go and explore my own brine harvesting over the weekend.

thank you for all suggestions.
Click to expand...

They will hatch with or without light... the easiest place to culture them is next to your sump. The humidity from the tank keeps the temp close enough and they're right near your tank to feed.
 
Z

zubr74

interesting discussion - I will be curious to see if you Rafal will be able to do it. post some pics of your cultured brine shrimp.
 
R

rafal07013

goofy kind of question --- how do you feed brine shrimp so it could grow a little bit? is it small at first? when i buy it at LFS is pretty large, so how do you feed it?
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
We don't feed the brine anything and feed them to the fish when they are small. Brine shrimp are like popcorn, fish love to eat it but they have almost no nutrional value. When they are smaller, they will have more nutrional value, so that is the best time to use them as food. We also add vitamin C to the culture to give them a bit more.
 
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