# Brine Shrimp Eggs?



## Ben M (25 Apr 2010)

hi, my brother has some krib fry, and it has been suggested that i feed them newly hatched brine shrimp. my lfs sells brine shrimp eggs, but how do i hatch them? do i need any special equipment, and do i hatch them all at once, or a few at a time? and when will the fry be big enough to eat the baby brine shrimp? they are 4 days old now, and still quite tiny. i am also getting some daphnia today for the baby kribs and my pet damselfly larvae, but how can i make sure that the baby kribs get the brine shrimp and daphnia without all of the other fish eating it first? (they are in a community tank).

cheers


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## Ed Seeley (25 Apr 2010)

Fresh eggs are dead easy to hatch.  Stale, old eggs will just frustrate you.  I buy mine from TA aquaculture as he has a quick turnover so it's new stock and they are quality eggs at cheap prices.  Here's their brine shrimp page, http://www.ta-aquaculture.co.uk/Brine_Shrimp.htm

As to hatching you need a hatchery of some kind.  There are various kinds on the market.
I make up a brine solution with 3.5 teaspoons of sea salt per litre of water and I add a teaspoon of eggs to that.  
Kept warm they hatch in 24 hours.  
Then turn off the air, allow the shrimp to collect at the base and the egg shells to rise to the surface.
Syphon off the orange shrimp and discard the waste water and hatched shells.
Sieve the shrimp through a purpose bought sieve or you can use a handkerchief.
Rinse them and feed to the fish.

If you want to get the shrimp down to the fry then I use a syringe to squirt the shrimp towards the fry.  The parents go nuts the first time you do it but soon get used to the intrusion and start eating the eggs too.

BTW don't worry about other fish eating the shrimp as it's a great general food for almost all fish.


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## Ben M (25 Apr 2010)

hi, it seems a bit confusing to me. will they be ok with just live daphnia?

cheers


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## Ed Seeley (25 Apr 2010)

Daphnia will mostly be too large for small fry to eat.  They will eat crushed up fish food fine though, but it doesn't hang around in the tank for as long as brine shrimp so you will need to feed more often and less and remove uneaten food more regularly.


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## Ben M (25 Apr 2010)

hi, i've got the daphnia just now, and they do look a bit big, but i've been told that i can breed them, and i'm guessing that the babies will be smaller lol. i've read that they need green water, and i have a few glass jars with Monoselium tenerum and Taiwan moss in, and i think i put them in the sun to much, as they have a lot of algae in them. will this be ok for them to eat, and will they breed in there? if not, what can i put them in to make green water and for them to breed.

cheers


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## Ed Seeley (25 Apr 2010)

If you want to culture daphnia just chuck them in a water butt or tank outisde in full sun.  If that doesn't go green on it's own add a small amount of fertiliser and it soon will.  You need larger water volumes to keep the water stable and generate enough food to keep a decent population going that you can then harvest.

Brine shrimp are much easier for young fish.


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## Ben M (25 Apr 2010)

hi, i don't have a water butt, but i do have a 26l tank that i'm setting up outside for my pet damselfly larvae, (that probably sounds weird lol), but would the larvae eat the daphnia straight away?. i could put them in a 10l bucket of tank water in my poly tunnel, would that be ok? i also have a bigger tub, about  30l ish, could i put them in that in my polytunnel? if they went into a tub/waterbutt, would it have to have the lid off, to let a lot of light in? would they be ok for a while in the little jars with lots of algae in until i can sort out a bigger tub? there aren't many daphnia, as they only cost 40p, so i'm sure there would be enough algae for them. should i leave the jars in the full sun?

and should i put them into the jars along with the pinkish coloured water that i bought them in, or should i net them out? i'm not sure that the holes in the net are small enough.

cheers


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## dw1305 (27 Apr 2010)

Hi all,


> I buy mine from TA aquaculture as he has a quick turnover so it's new stock and they are quality eggs at cheap prices. Here's their brine shrimp page, http://www.ta-aquaculture.co.uk/Brine_Shrimp.htm


. I used to buy mine there as well. 

Try micro, banana or walter worms, they  are much easier to culture than BBS. When the fry are really small you can squeeze a filter sponge out and pipette the dirty squeezed water to them, it will contain a lot of things (rotifers particularly) that the fry will eat. A big tangle of moss will also provide food and shelter.

cheers Darrel


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## Ben M (27 Apr 2010)

thanks, i've been considering growing some worms, such as the ones you've mentioned, but again, i'm not sure what to do with them. which will be best for baby kribs and corys (fingers crossed the corys will breed)? and what do i do with the worms? the babies were constantly feeding from the piece of driftwood in the tank, which had a coating of algae and stuff on it, and it was the main place where the babies fed. i just went into my brothers room a minute ago, and found him putting it in the tank, after removing it and scrubbing it clean!!! so i read what you said about squeezing the filter sponge near them, but he showed me some dirt which he said they would feed on. it was just a load of fish waste! he's so thick sometimes. i'll have to wait until he's out of the way, then i'll squeeze some filter sponge near the babies.

rant over!


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## dw1305 (28 Apr 2010)

Hi all,
I culture Grindal and Micro worms amongst others, they are both very easy. Have a look here: http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/live-food.html, the cultures can be bought of the internet, or got from another hobbiest etc.
cheers Darrel


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## Ben M (28 Apr 2010)

thanks, i'll have a look.


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## chris1004 (29 Apr 2010)

Hi,

No need to buy a brine shrimp hatchery just watch this video on youtube, its what I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiwzPA7Vrbg

I start a new culture every day (1/2 litre of water, 3 level teaspoons of deionised salt, 1/4 teaspoon eggs) and throw out the old one when as soon as the next batch has hatched. The reasoning behind this is that the BBS are far more nutritious within a few hours of hatching than they are after a day or two.

When harvesting I pour into a clean glass from the hatchery about 1/4-1/3 of a pint of the solution and let it stand for 10 minutes its plainly obvious which is the brine shrimp and which is the rubbish if you do it this way as the clarity of the glass helps a lot. Using a piece of air tubing (long enough so you don't get a mouth full) syphon the BBS from the glass and onto a piece of cotton hung over a jug (I use an old T-shirt) . This acts as quite a good seive you can then repeat the process of sieving the BBS with fresh clean water and then just dip the cotton onto the surface of the water once cleaned of the salt residue.

If you want to feed it via a syringe all you need to do is dip the cloth containing the sieved BBS into a small amount of clean water in a jug then fill the syringe from this.

Sera do a pre-packaged mix (salt + eggs) normally available from most LFS which cost about Â£1.60a pack. Assuming you already have an air pump then thats all you will need to buy to try it out if you follow the advice in the link provided.

Regards, Chris.


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## Twitch9701 (6 Dec 2020)

A quick question Russian BBS or usa BBS what are better


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## jolt100 (6 Dec 2020)

I use both. Utah eggs are easier to hatch and the bbs are a bit smaller than Russian. Worth the extra money IMHO.


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