Brine shrimp hatchery DIY

[sirrealism]

So the topic of Baby brine shrimp has come up a few times and I was asked a couple times to put together some pics and explain how to hatch your own brine. I will not use a bunch of scientific names like (nauplii of Artemia salina) First time I read that I had to look it up too so lets keep it simple ok just baby brine. First off I want to make sure everyone knows that baby brine shrimp are great food for corals and small fish. Once brine shrimp have grown and loose there egg sack they are no longer a good food source. The egg sack is where the nutrition is. You can feed adult brine to your fish but think of it as candy for your fish. Not what they need but a treat.
Now there are several hatcheries out there and really you could make your own because it is very simple. But today we will talk about the one I have and its what I suggest to everyone just because it so very simple. The items you will need for mine is a 2 litter bottle "empty of course" An small air pump. "super cheap ones are fine because you dont need much air" Clean 0tds water and the hatchery. This is the one I use and I bet if you look around you can get a better price on one then I did but it was at my LFS and I am sure these are at just about every LFS I have ever been too. If not they are everywhere online. Stay away from the one that has the black box with the little glass on top. I have never got those to work right. Others might, I just had bad luck with them.
Cut the bottom off of your 2 littler bottle and screw the top of the bottle on to the base of the hatchery. hook the supplied air line to the base and the air pump and your ready to go
The kit comes with 3 packets of eggs with salt so all you have to do is add 1 litter of water and the packet and turn the air pump on. Now this is going to make a lot of brine shrimp and I mean a lot. I dont do it like this very often and will explain more about how I normally do it later



Now the instructions says 24-36 hours but I normally just feed them to my tanks every other day. Makes it simple.
So now its been 2 days and we are ready. So I turn off the the air pump and wait 10-15 min. This needs to be in a well lite place because the shrimp will swim to the light and the egg casings will float to the top. I find that a normal lite place like my counter makes them swim to the bottom. you will see the little shrimp swimming.

Have to reboot the computer. next post how I feed these to my tanks

 

[sirrealism]

Next I go to each tank thats going to get feed and remove the filter sock.



Ok so now you have a live baby brine and a bunch of egg shells. How do you separate them. This is very simple but it takes 2 hands so it was hard to take pics at the same time. I pinch the air line and remove it from the air pump and hold it up over the hatchery

I then carry the hatchery over to the tanks and put the air line in the tank and out comes the baby brine shrimp.
In they go.

when you get down to about 1-2" remove it and take it to the sink
Give it a good rinse air line included
Refill and start the process over again.
Now I have lots of tanks to feed and most do not so what are you going to do with so much baby brine and wont it be to much for my tank? Yes it will!! I on the other hand have lots to feed so I make a lot
But most wont need the amount I make so what do you do. Well they sell baby brine shrimp eggs in a little jar that does not have the salt pre mixed in it. So just take some of your tank water and put it in the hatchery and add how ever much eggs you want. Plus its much cheaper to buy them this way as your not paying for salt and packaginghttp://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=5005&cmpid=03csegpl&ref=6111&subref=AA&CAWELAID=525405329&CAGPSPN=pla&catargetid=530005150000113568&cadevice=c Most of your LFS will have this too and its better because your using your tank water instead of what ever salt the company is using.

 

[sirrealism]

So you might ask "How does your wife put up with all the tanks and dont I see your putting up a 300g tank" Yes this is all true. But there is a trick to it all. Now I want all the Woman to not read this ok. "Ya right" First of all my house is pretty good size. and all the tanks are in one room call it my man cave. Next my wife works 40+ hours and drives 2 hours a day to get there and back. I work 50-60 hours a week but I ride my mountain bike there and back so its close. All the kids are grown and at collage or on with there lives. So I cook 4-5 nights a week. I clean the kitchen and all of the down stairs. I do a lot of the things she likes to do even if I dont really like it.

I made this before I did my tank work last night along with some rice and veges. In other words I give so I can get. Yes my tank space is a mess but she leaves me alone with it because I keep it all in that one space and not everywhere in the house. "The garage does not count because thats full of tank stuff too plus my 10x10 storage unit is full LOL" I am a hoarder when it comes to aquariums and yes she does give me crap about the garage. She cant give me crap about my storage unit because she has never been there. Not sure she even knows about it LOL.
The point I am trying to make is because I give in to the things she wants I have gotten her into the aquarium thing. "she even went to reefapalooza with me and she spent 100$ of her own money on corals. You better believe those corals are not for sale and better not die!!!
Anyway I hope this Brine shrimp hatchery thread helps out and please if you have questions ask.

 

[BigAl07]

Excellent write up bud! Thanks for the pictures and all the details.

I'm still LOLing over the "don't read this" part! Yes it's a Give & Take and sounds like you've found a good healthy balance so all involved are happy.

 

[sirrealism]

Thank BigAl. Glad you liked it. Yes Give and take. Though that might all change next week for no reason at all. But we love them anyway

 

[reefle]

Great stuff! Was wondering if this is how you do for mysis too...I've just heard mysis were more nutritious for fish/corals than brine

 

[reefle]

also if egg sacks are where the nutrition is, why not just pour the eggs into the tank directly?

 

[sirrealism]

Good questions Reefle. I can tell you that this is not the way they do it with Mysis. I dont know of any other eggs that can be dried out like these and kept for several years and then hatch as well as these do. Also most fish and corals wont eat the shells. Think of them a dehydrated but then for them to be good they have to be rehydrated. I am trying to think of a good analogy for this.

 

[DianaKay]

I just want to know....
Why the #%}^*# did I not find a husband LIKE THAT??
(I would act like I didn't like reef tanks to find a deal like that )

 

[sirrealism]

You were not supposed to read that. LOL

 

[DaveK]

Good article. Here are a few suggestions I have to offer.

Get your salt and brine shrimp eggs in bulk. It's lots less expensive. To mix, use 2 quarts of water, 2 table spoons of salt, and up to two teaspoons of eggs. I prefer to dissolve the salt before adding the eggs.

Feed the brine shrimp as close to being hatched as possible.

To help separate the egg shells from the shrimp, you can add a cup or two of FW to the hatched mixture. This helps the egg sheels sink or float, and the shrimp concentrate better.

You can also use a wide mouth 1 gal glass or clear plastic jar.

 

[sirrealism]

Thanks Dave. Yes there are a lot of different things to do and plenty of real DIY systems that are better then this one. I buy bulk myself but for the newbies to hatching, I was keeping it simple.

 

[BigAl07]

Great stuff! Was wondering if this is how you do for mysis too...I've just heard mysis were more nutritious for fish/corals than brine

Mysis are not hatched like this at all. That would be AWESOME if they were but alas that's not the case here. Many die-hard hobbyist can maintain a supply of Mysis (Mysid) from a starter culture but I've not seen anyone start them from anything other than that. I'm not saying it hasn't or can't be done I've just never seen it done.

also if egg sacks are where the nutrition is, why not just pour the eggs into the tank directly?

I think you mean their Yolk-Sack. Egg-Sack is what they develop in within the mother and isn't part of the individual animal once they leave her body (as new born LIVE shrimp or as dormant eggs).

The Yolk-Sack is the portion of the nauplii that has nutrients for the newborn to sustain them for the first few hours of life. During this time they have no real developed mouth or anus so this yolk-sack is their meal to go for at least the first 12 hours of life.

You don't want to dump the egg-shells directly into the tank (or keep them to a MIN) because

• A) they seem to never break down
• B) Enough of them will clog filter media/grates
• C) It's believed they can be hard on certain fish's digestive system in large numbers because of their hardness
• D) They have zero nutritional value for the fish you're trying to feed

I hope that helps some.

 

[jaws789832]

has anyone heard of or tried decapsulating the eggs using Clorox? I have actually experimented with this and it does work but haven't yet tried adding the brine shrimp to my tank because I don't knows what the effect of the bleach is on the babies. Basically before you hatch the eggs you soak them in bleach for about 5 minutes. This actually removes the egg shell, rinse the eggs really well (I use a coffee filter for this) then hatch as usual. When they are done hatching there are no shells in the hatchery only baby brine shrimp and unhatched embryo. It is also said that you can add the decapsulated eggs directly to tank without hatching to get the best nutrition but have been afraid to try it. Any suggestions? If you have no idea what I am talking about, google decapsulating brine shrimp


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[sirrealism]

I have heard of this, but never did any research on it. Man that would be great. I do know that there are more then one person that uses bleach in there tanks. "dont remember what for" I think Paulb does or did. I do know that bleach will evap pretty quickly so there might be something to this

 

[sirrealism]

wow. This is going to be something I try. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa023

 

[BigAl07]

wow. This is going to be something I try. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa023

Take notes and pics. This is something I would be interested in as well.

 

[Ratpack]

I am also interested in the results of this process.

 

[sirrealism]

Will do. I have so much going on. I spent all day sunday collecting grass shrimp, Pods and fiddler crabs and now I am shipping them to GA to make sure they make it alive. I have never shipped live anything before so its all very new to me. These are all to feed octopus and cuttlefish. So I have not had time to do the Decapsulating yet but I will.

 

[jaws789832]

The decapsulating process does work. I have done it several times with no shells in hatchery


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