live brine shrimp..

[Oceanicsublimat]

I was considering feeding live brine shrimp to my clown and was wondering if I could feed anything to the shrimp that would make them more nutritional. Any thoughts?

[Brodie]

Try using Mysis Shrimp instead.

Always try to "gutload" the shrimp before using them as a food item. Phytoplankton is your best option. Newly hatched live brine is a great source of nutrition if done correctly.

http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/brineshrimp.html

Cheers
Steve

[Oceanicsublimat]

okie dokie...thanks for the info.. it looks kinda tedious.. I'll have to give this some thought...

[rayjay]

Do you have a source for live adult brine shrimp?
If so, all you need to do is gut load them with Selcon/selcon or Tahitian blend from Brine Shrimp Direct.
And excellent alternative is to take spirulina flake and crush it up, placing it in the centre of a dense piece of cloth. Fold up th cloth to form a spirulina ball and soad it overnight in a cup of salt water. Place the spirulina ball in the brine shrimp holding container and massage it untill it fogs the water.
Adults gut load in about 1-2 hrs.
If you purchase the brine shrimp live, they can be stored in a refrigerator for several day, and just warmed up and gut loaded before adding them to your tank for food.
Be safe not sorry, and do a quick fresh water dip of the brine shrimp after gut loading and before placing them in your tank.
I might have a picture of the spirulina ball on my page which was mentioned above.

RAISING BRINE SHRIMP

[i have crabs]

what about newly hached brine how would you gut load them and how long should you wait before feeding them to the fish

sorry for the hijack i have some babby cardinals im feeding brine would dt's photoplankton work?

[rayjay]

Yes, you can use DT's Phytoplankton to gut load brine shrimp nauplii.
However, unlike adults that gut load quickly, the nauplii take about 24 hrs at least to be gut loaded. In fact, you have to wait for the second instar stage before they even have mouths and anuses.
This means that you will begin gut loading about 1 day after hatchout, and feeding them to your fish after a total of 48 hrs.
This also means you will have a trade off of brine that are gut loaded to increase the protein levels, but will have a reduced level of huffa's which come in the sack the nauplii feed on initially.
You have to decide which you want more, higher protein levels or higher huffa's.
Of course, you can feed both newly hatched nauplii for the huffa content, followed by gut loaded nauplii for the protein levels.

[Civicman86]

I have a question related to this topic. Are those tubes of "live shrimp" you can buy at the pet store any good? You know the ones that say hatch your own shrimp? do they really work? hard to do?

[Oceanicsublimat]

Ok.. thanks for the help.. I've been reading and goin over everything needed to do with this.. still have alot of thinkin' to do..

[rayjay]

Originally Posted by Civicman86

I have a question related to this topic. Are those tubes of "live shrimp" you can buy at the pet store any good? You know the ones that say hatch your own shrimp? do they really work? hard to do?

If the shrimp were live they wouldn't need hatching.
Brine shrimp cysts are sold to hobbyists who wish to hatch and feed the newborn nauplii to their fish.
Hatching them is no problem; growing them out is labour intensive and fraught with problems.
While you can buy the ready made hatchers, most people just use a two litre pop bottle and cut the bottom out of it. Invert this in something to hold it upright, (the bottom of another bottle works fine) add salt water, aerate with a rigid air line tube extending down into the bottle cap, (now the bottom of the container) and add brine shrimp cysts.
Actually, it's better to add the cysts and let them soak for a couple of hours before putting the airline tube in. This way more stay in solution rather than be skimmed out of the water where they do no good.
If some get pushed up on the sides of the container, just swish the water around to get them in solution again.
The main problem people have in failed hatch outs is purchase of improperly stored cysts.
The cysts need to be refrigerated, but many stores just keep them on the shelf, and in time they become useless.
I buy mine from Brine Shrimp Direct, and never have a problem with hatching. Their price is also the best I've been able to find, especially for the quality of the ones I buy.