sparkyweasel
Member
- Joined
- 30 Jun 2011
- Messages
- 2,867
As promised in another thread, I found some photos including my old brine shrimp hatchery.
I kept the tank at 78°F to match my Angelfish breeding tanks, that way it doubled as a fish hatchery.
I preferred to let the fish raise their babies, but sometimes I raised a batch artificially. Hence the spaghetti jar, containing a leaf of Amazon Sword with eggs on. The water is treated with Methylene Blue to help prevent fungus attacking the eggs. There's an airstone gently bubbling for circulation.
The tank is 18" x 12" x 12" (45 x 30 x 30cm) and could hold up to eight bottles for hatching Brine Shrimps. I repurposed old pop bottles, inverted with the bottom cut off. An airstone in the neck of each kept the water swirling, and the eggs could not settle at the bottom. Being essentially free, I replaced them when they got grubby.
I used a reuseable coffee filter to strain the BBS from the water, putting the water into another pop bottle ready for another batch of BS eggs. Used the water four times, any more and the hatch rate dropped noticeably. Used TropicMarin sea salt.
I didn't separate the empty eggshells from the BBS, I let them float to the top of the breeding tank and skimmed them off from there.
That's enough typing for now.
I think that covers the BBS hatching, but feel free to ask question if it doesn't.
I'll add some baby pics soon.
I kept the tank at 78°F to match my Angelfish breeding tanks, that way it doubled as a fish hatchery.
I preferred to let the fish raise their babies, but sometimes I raised a batch artificially. Hence the spaghetti jar, containing a leaf of Amazon Sword with eggs on. The water is treated with Methylene Blue to help prevent fungus attacking the eggs. There's an airstone gently bubbling for circulation.
The tank is 18" x 12" x 12" (45 x 30 x 30cm) and could hold up to eight bottles for hatching Brine Shrimps. I repurposed old pop bottles, inverted with the bottom cut off. An airstone in the neck of each kept the water swirling, and the eggs could not settle at the bottom. Being essentially free, I replaced them when they got grubby.
I used a reuseable coffee filter to strain the BBS from the water, putting the water into another pop bottle ready for another batch of BS eggs. Used the water four times, any more and the hatch rate dropped noticeably. Used TropicMarin sea salt.
I didn't separate the empty eggshells from the BBS, I let them float to the top of the breeding tank and skimmed them off from there.
That's enough typing for now.
I think that covers the BBS hatching, but feel free to ask question if it doesn't.
I'll add some baby pics soon.