Raising Brine Shrimp

[Something Fishy]

I got brine shrimp kit to see if I could hatch them and feed them to my betta. They hatched alright, and I poured them in his tank and he set about gobbling them up. The only thing is there were about a million of them. I don't see how he will eat them all.

How long do brine shrimp live in fresh water? I'm guessing not all that long. What I'd like to do is keep them in the salt hatchery and let them grow a little more, and then use the fresh water catcher container to collect less of them. That way my betta will be eating fewer but larger shrimp instead of having a million teeny ones swimming around his tank. Does this make sense? Only, I don't know how to go about keeping a population of brine shrimp alive for an extended period of time. What do I feed them? Where should I keep them? Anyone who has ever tried this, please let me know.

 

[Guest]

You can feed them dry yeast, but then your culture gets a little smelly. Make that a lot smelly.

In any case, here's the deal with brine shrimp. When newly hatched, they are very nutritious. within a few days, they use up their egg sac, and become much less nutritious, fish still love them, but they are basically the equivalent of potato chips. Tasty, but worthless.

Here's what I do. Hatch out less, and feed them all to your fish within 1-2 days. I have a special net, (called a brine shrimp net, duh! ) This net has a very tight weave and will hold baby brine. that way, you can catch a zillion baby brine, and put them in your tank without putting all that salt water in there too. Really good for fry, or for reluctant eaters.

 

[Allivymar]

Basic brine shrimp hatching info: http://www.angelsplus.com/bshrimpegg.htm

Detailed Brine Shrimp info: http://www.ee.pdx.edu/~davidr/discus/articles/artemia.html

More Brine shrimp links then you're prob interested in LOL: http://www.projectlinks.org/shrimp/

Coupla things to know. BBS aka Baby brine shrimp are really what you want to feed your bettas if you are looking for good nutrition. They still have their egg sacs, and theres where all the good stuff is. Adult brine shrimp are more like...potato chips. Really yummy, but not much nutrition. Better to hatch a smaller amount at a time then to let em mature if its the nutrition you are looking for.

 

[Allivymar]

Damn LOL I feel like a parrot now just repeating what corvuscorax said. I have got to learn to type faster

 

[Guppyman]

Brine Shrimp

I hatch 5 teaspoons at a time in a gallon of water w/ 5 tbs of kosher salt. After rinsing the hatch in a brine shrimp net - i put a few drops of shrimp in each compartment of a cocktail ice cube tray. Then I put a few drops of water to aid freezing and eliminate freezer burn on the shrimp themselves. All I do after that is drop a cube into each tank at feeding time. My aeration provides enough water movement to keep the shrimp suspended after the cube melts. The fish couldn't care less that they are not alive (yes, they have told me so). This way a person needing just a small amount can hatch every two weeks or so and have enough to last between hatches. I do hatch daily, feed them live a hatching time - then I freeze the leftover for when I'm feeling lazy. I keep about 50 cubes in reserve at all times.

Guppyman

 

[Something Fishy]

Okay, thanks everyone! I guess it's not wise to try to keep them alive past babyhood. I try not to eat potato chips, and neither shall my fish! So, the hatchery thing I got is basically a black box that you put the egg mixture into with water, with a little hole in the top where you put a freshwater capsule. The shrimp hatch and then swim up into the light and into the freshwater capsule. Then I just dump the freshwater capsule into the tank with the baby shrimp in it and my betta ate em up. I guess I could use half a packet of egg mixture instead of the whole thing, but then will I have to use less water to get the right mixture of salt? I dont think that would work b/c the water needs to be right up to the brim for them to swim out.

How long are they going to live in his tank? I checked about an hour later and there were still some swimming around that he was hunting down, but there also seemed to be some dead on the bottom.

 

[Something Fishy]

One more thing...should I worry about feeding him too many? They are so tiny, it's hard to judge how many is too much. I try not to give him too much flake food, but with this I don't know.

 

[Guest]

25 kudos to guppyman, awesome idea!

When i first read " 5 teaspoons at a time" I about choked! but I read on, and the freezing idea sounds great, and I'm sure the nutritional aspect is preserved.