Hatching Brine Shrimp IN your SW tank . .

BigAl07

BigAl07

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Ok hopefully after this weekend or maybe in the next couple of weeks I'm going to try this experiment. Our LFS said he has a good long time customer that did this and it's worked out GREAT! Here ya go . . .

About 18 months ago he was going to start growing BBS for his reef tank just to supplement the food being offered. He had one of those hang on Shrimp Hatchery things that allows them to hatch then swim out towards the light (and get eaten by the fish). He had done this several times with good success. Add the eggs to the hatchery and in a day or so they hatch and swim out. Every few days remove the hatchery for cleaning etc and start over. Well one time he was messing around getting ready to add eggs to the hatchery and accidentally poured 1/3 of the bottle (6g bottle of SFB Brine Shrimp Eggs) into the tank. He tried netting some out but they are pretty small and just made a "Sheet' on the water's surface. Anyway he just got as many as he could out and gave up. He said about 6-8 weeks later one evening he was tinkering in the tank and moved a rock and noticed hundreds of Brine Shrimp hanging out inside his Live Rock pile. It's been 18 months now and he says he has so many he's able to scoop them out and feed them to his other tanks weekly. I'm inclined to believe the LFS because I know him from OTHER than just the LFS but I don't know his "customer" at all. So with that being said I'm going to give it a whirl in my 12g NanoCube once I have all the rock cleaned and am done swapping rock out.

So has anyone else heard of anything similar?
 
chipmunkofdoom2

chipmunkofdoom2

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Wow, that's a really cool idea. Brine shrimp sound like an excellent addition to the tiny inverts that already take up residence in live rock!
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

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I totally agree I just don't know how long-term they'd make it in a normal tank. I also don't know if the "dump-n-forget" method will really yield a good hatch population. I just don't know. I understand than when feeding newly hatched to baby fish it's important to keep the egg case (shell?) out because the young digestive systems can't handle them. I don't see where it would be a problem in a more mature fish.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

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Well I added about 6,000,000,000 dried Brine Shrimp eggs to my 12g NanoCube this morning. I re-hydrated them in RO/DI water gently agitated for about an hour. Then I added the mix to my tank and immediately my Finger Leather started showing some amazing P-E. It was like the bs eggs were a treat it's been waiting for FOREVER! LOL!

I'm running no filters, sponges etc on this tank so the eggs have some chance at hatching. We'll see. Hopefully in 48hrs I can see some type of movement if I shine a bright light source into the tank at night. We'll see.
 
Reefmack

Reefmack

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Interesting! Just wondering - why did you hydrate them in RO/DI, and not SW, first? Is that recommended? Did you count all 6,000,000,000? LOL!
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

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Reefmack said:
Interesting! Just wondering - why did you hydrate them in RO/DI, and not SW, first? Is that recommended? Did you count all 6,000,000,000? LOL!
Click to expand...

I followed the packaging instructions (sort of).

Of course I didn't count them all. I counted then in pairs to make it go quicker. I started counting in December of 2008.

As soon as I have something to report I'll update this thread. I think my clownfish has put on some weight today... I wonder why she would have gotten FAT today . . . .
 
jjmoneyman

jjmoneyman

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I'm wondering if this could be done in the fuge as well. I have very light flow in there with plenty of rock and chaeto.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

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I really don't understand why it wouldn't unless there's something in our reef tanks that inhibit the hatching (SG, Temp, Flow etc). Hopefully I'll know something in 48 hours or so.
 
D

DaveK

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I'm not sure this is a good idea.

First the eggs swell when they hatch. This could be an issue for any fish that eats the eggs. The egg cases are not digestible. No big issue in a large fish, but might be for a small one.

Second, you have all those shells in the tank, and they kind of make an unsightly mess.

Eggs are light and would get sucked up by the filtration system.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

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DaveK said:
First the eggs swell when they hatch. This could be an issue for any fish that eats the eggs. The egg cases are not digestible. No big issue in a large fish, but might be for a small one.
Click to expand...
The only swelling took place in the re-hydration stage outside of the tank.

The only fish in this tank is a 4 year old Maroon Clown. She seems unaffected thus far (48 hours in). I’ll keep this thread updated as time goes by.

DaveK said:
Second, you have all those shells in the tank, and they kind of make an unsightly mess.
Click to expand...
They don’t seem to have any real substance to them. The empties have collected in the back middle chamber and are just “hanging around” in there. They tend to congregate in the low/slow flow area of the water’s surface which makes manual removal very easy (paper towel laid on surface gets about 90% in 1 second).

DaveK said:
Eggs are light and would get sucked up by the filtration system.
Click to expand...
I’m not currently running any filter media on this tank at all. It’s 100% biological filtration system (NanoCube 12DX) with just the MJ900 Return pump, Live Rock, and Live Sand. I’ve got a HOB filter I run before and during water changes etc.

****UPDATE****
HOUSTON . . .. we have BABIES!! I just turned all the lights off in the room and tank and shined a bright LED flashlight into the tank. In the back corners and in the back chambers I can see the “Dust Specs” swimming in an erratic spastic manner which is normal for Sea Monkeys aka Brine Shrimp. They’re WAY to small for pics but if they grow out I’ll get pics later on. I’m just tickled to see some hatch out inside the system.
 
L

livebait

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I'm going to try this in my 90. However, I'm ordering decapsulated eggs because I don't want to risk introducing hydroids.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

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so are the hydroids somehow also dried and in "suspension" with the BS eggs? And do they hurt as bad as HEMroids? :LOL:
 
L

livebait

Member
hrrmmm maybe :)

I don't know if they come in as dehydrated hydroids (haha) or hydroid eggs attached to the cysts capsule, just don't want to get them started even though they wouldn't hurt anything in a reef tank (probably).
Other reasons would be no empty shells to mess with, higher hatch rates and higher nutrition for the fish and corals that catch the BBS because they spent considerably less energy while hatching.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

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link me to where you're getting them decapsulated if you would please :) I might try that route next :)
 
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