Brine shrimp

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ChanEKC

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 5, 2016
Messages
26
Location
Washington
Okay so I have been feeding my fish brine shrimp for a while and I switched to feeding them live brine shrimp, my problem is that I always end up hatching way more than my fish will eat. So now I have all of these questions about these small little creatures.
How long can baby brine shrimp live without eating?
Can I get away with keeping them in the hatchery for a few days?
What do brine shrimp eat?
What is the best way to store them?
Does anyone have a tank dedicated to raising brine shrimp to keep a constant food source for their fish and if so are there any tips for this? I imagine that the baby's would get sucked up in just about any filter. I have a 10g tank that I'm not using so I was thinking I might dedicate it to that but I'm not sure of how a long term brine shrimp farm would work since their life spans are so short
 
The longer you wait after hatching the less nutritional value the shrimp have .
You must GUT LOAD them if you want to use them as food after that...
As for raising them I am not sure it is worth it...An airstone no filter for the 10g is how my LFS keeps their adult live brine...
here is a link.
brine shrimp
 
those newly hatched brine shrimp maybe have nutrition for a day or so. Afterthat they drastically loose nutritional value.

if you want to keep hatching them, just use less percentages of eggs and less hatching water. the hatch rate will be much smaller.

im not aware of good ways to store them except by having their own smaller tank of some kind. can feed them small amounts of powdered spirulina.
 
Has anyone had any luck with freezing them? I don't have a measuring spoon under 1/4 of a teaspoon and that even seems to be too much
 
Nothing says you have to use the whole 1/4 teaspoon. ;) :whistle: The smallest spoon I have is 1/8 teaspoon and I just adjust according to how many fry I am feeding. I've done just a tiny amount, maybe 1/16 of the 1/8 spoon, to the whole spoon ( or larger spoon. The key is the water and circulation. You use the same amount of water in the container as the more crowded you make the eggs, the poorer the hatch rate.
The most nutritious the nuplii are is in the first 4-6 hours after hatching. Just like fish fry, they have a yolk sac that has all the nutrition and they start using it up quickly once they hatch. So the sooner you can freeze the shrimp after hatch, the more nutritious they will be for your fish. I use ice cube trays to freeze mine. I'll put a feeding's worth in each cube. (y)
 
Yeah my hands have a tendency to shake a lot when I'm measuring things so trying to get an equal amount of something with out a teaspoon is rough, and I don't have a 1/8tsp measure. I'll try freezing then then and see how my fish like it. Hopefully save some money to since the brine shrimp shouldn't be waisted anymore. Thanks guys!
 
Yeah my hands have a tendency to shake a lot when I'm measuring things so trying to get an equal amount of something with out a teaspoon is rough, and I don't have a 1/8tsp measure. I'll try freezing then then and see how my fish like it. Hopefully save some money to since the brine shrimp shouldn't be waisted anymore. Thanks guys!
If you have a $1.00 store out there by you, you can pick up a measuring spoon set ( 1/8 teas - 1 Tble) for a buck. ;) That's my favorite store for these kinds of things. Turkey basters included. ( Great for blowing BS into a fry tank. (y) )
 
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