Brine Shrimp Question
- Thread starter 3ddd
- Start date
Brine shimp does have a very short life span, not sure what it is but im sure google will find it for ya.
Brine shimp are called brine because they live in a "brine" or brackish water. Not quite saltwater but not fresh water. A mix of both like you said.
I question why you ask. If you are planing on raising them for food, I wouldnt bother. They are not a staple food and have absolutly no nutrition for our saltwater fish.
Brine shimp are called brine because they live in a "brine" or brackish water. Not quite saltwater but not fresh water. A mix of both like you said.
I question why you ask. If you are planing on raising them for food, I wouldnt bother. They are not a staple food and have absolutly no nutrition for our saltwater fish.
Yes I was thinking on culturing brine shrimp as live food for my clownfish.
Now I'm not sure to culturing them as you mentioned that they aren't good in nutrition especially for saltwater fish such as clownfish, etc.
BTW, I am wondering which food you think that has good enough nutrition, if brine shrimp aren't?
Krill, mysis. I would Get some of Rods food. It has a very good variety of food in one pinch and contains no phosphates so you dont need to try and rinse it as you would with other frozen foods. All of your fish will go nuts for it.
You can gut load the brine if that is something you really want to do. You would do this by feeding the brine vitamins and other stuff and before they can digest it they are fed to your fish. IMO this is too much to go through when you can buy something such as RODS. People do gut load brine, but it is usually used for finicky fish such as manderins.
another food to stay away from is flake food. Most of us try to feed our fish natual foods as much as we can. Flake food has high amounts of phosphates and other junk fish would never get in the ocean. Here is a list of ingredients from tetra marine saltwater flakes.
fish meal
dried yeast
ground brown rice
shrimp meal
wheat glutten
potato protien
dehulled soybean meal
feeding oatmeal
soybean oil
fish oil
algae meal
sorbitol
lecithin
wheat flour
riboflavin-5-phosphate
l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate
Multiple other stuff and on top of it food coloring
How much of this stuff would fish never encounter in the ocean.
fish meal
dried yeast
ground brown rice
shrimp meal
wheat glutten
potato protien
dehulled soybean meal
feeding oatmeal
soybean oil
fish oil
algae meal
sorbitol
lecithin
wheat flour
riboflavin-5-phosphate
l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate
Multiple other stuff and on top of it food coloring
How much of this stuff would fish never encounter in the ocean.
I buy LIVE B-S at the LFS every few weeks more for my entertainment more than anything else LOL! I enjoy putting several dozen at a time into the tank and watch how excited the fish get from the movement.
They do live a LOT longer than 24hrs though. I believe the 24hr issue you may be thinking about is that they are only "Nutritious" for the first 24hrs of their life while they still have their "Yolk-Sac". After that you do indeed have to "Gut-Load" them to be of any real benefit to the fish. Without "Gut-Loading" it would be like you or I trying to live off of caramel popcorn. We'd enjoy it's taste and novelty but would ultimately be mal-nourished in short order.
If you're raising clownfish fry freshly hatched BS can be a good starter food for them and is often the ONLY food newly hatched fry will take (this is true in many different species of fish).
They do live a LOT longer than 24hrs though. I believe the 24hr issue you may be thinking about is that they are only "Nutritious" for the first 24hrs of their life while they still have their "Yolk-Sac". After that you do indeed have to "Gut-Load" them to be of any real benefit to the fish. Without "Gut-Loading" it would be like you or I trying to live off of caramel popcorn. We'd enjoy it's taste and novelty but would ultimately be mal-nourished in short order.
If you're raising clownfish fry freshly hatched BS can be a good starter food for them and is often the ONLY food newly hatched fry will take (this is true in many different species of fish).
Comboverguy
New Member
Hey BigAl07, how big are the brine shrimp you get at the LFS? I hatched some eggs a couple of weeks ago and they're still very small. Like smaller than a pin head. I had hoped they would get a little larger. As for the question about keeping them alive, these like I said are a couple of weeks old, and I feed them plankton once in awhile and keep air bubbling slowly in my hatcher. I feed out of them every couple of days or so. I also changed the water once so far.
redsea reefer
Well-Known Member
That would be Brine Shrimp Bob...
Yes Bob that's Brine shrimp otherwise they're just like PopCorn for humans. I feed them because I (this will sound terrible) love to watch the fish chase them down and gobble-em up 
If you're feeding them for nutritional value (young fish etc) you do need to Gut-Load them before hand.
If you're feeding them for nutritional value (young fish etc) you do need to Gut-Load them before hand.
Ya I thought it was bine and not mysis, caught your other post on those recycled pics of snow on that same deck. Get more of the driveway/road!!!! I hope youdid not pay for that rack , I can get a 4x8' of Acrylic for $110.00 comercial price but I need to pick it up here in Milw, but you should beable to use your position to get it ordered thru work.
redsea reefer
Well-Known Member
Yes Bob that's Brine shrimp otherwise they're just like PopCorn for humans. I feed them because I (this will sound terrible) love to watch the fish chase them down and gobble-em up
I also feed Live Brine once a month to see the action Al but I put some drops of selcon in the bag for a hour or two before they go in the tank.
Doni is very experienced in many aspects of BS (as well as about anything else you can think of around here) and I'm sure she can add a good deal to this conversation.
Not to be rude but there is a wealth of information on the boards here and I'm sure there are many others with something to add to this conversation.
In addition to that, the "Maturity" of the brine shrimp is dependent upon many factors (water conditions, food supply, over-all health of animal, lineage etc). They can mature in as little as 7-8 days or as long as several weeks. They have a life cycle ranging from roughly 2 months up to 10 - 12 months again dependent upon the above noted factors. The full-grown adult ranges in size from 7/8mm up to 20mm (extreme growth).