brine shrimp

[ohio reefer]

i have a brine shrimp hatchery that only hatches them. any idea on how to keep them alive till they get full grown in 2 weeks?

i have a 2gal aquarium with a air stone.

any other ideas?

thanks

mark

 

[ohio reefer]

yoohoo!!!! anyone out there?

 

[rayjay]

Growing brine shrimp to adult in any meaningful numbers is a major PITA.
You can grow them low density with no problem, but more than that is labour intensive.
It takes me about 3 1/2 weeks to get them to the reproducing stage.
RAISING BRINE SHRIMP TO ADULT

 

[afilter]

Excellent link. Does look very labor intensive and messy. Wife will never go for it.

Why do you want/need live adult brine anyway? What are you feeding?

 

[Brenden]

I buy bags of them at the LFS for $2.00 Definitely not worth the hassle.

 

[BillyZ]

some folks like to gut load them and feed them rather than feeding frozen brine, which are actually rather low in nutrients compared to mysis or other foods. Also, "picky eaters" can often be less picky to actual live feed than frozen.

 

[rayjay]

I grow them because I can't buy them here in Ontario Canada and I use them to feed my seahorses and other fish.
They normally feed on Tahitian Blend for excellent all the time nutrient levels, but I also gut load them with 95% spirulina or with Selco, to vary the type of nutrition I feed to the fish.
The fish also get their exercise chasing down the live food.

 

[Brenden]

The fish also get their exercise chasing down the live food.

I have so much flow that the fish can not tell if it is alive or not.

 

[ohio reefer]

i just thought it might be a little more cost effective this way. but i guess not.

thanks all

mark

 

[ohio reefer]

how do you keep the adults alive once you get them?

mark

 

[rayjay]

"I have so much flow that the fish can not tell if it is alive or not"

Flow has nothing to do with it. The fish can tell the difference not matter what flow you have.
My reef tank is 90g and has a mag 18 for a return, with another 1200g flow from Hagen 802 power heads, and the fish just go nuts for live.

"how do you keep the adults alive once you get them?"

Obviously you didn't bother to read the link or you would have known that I grow them out from cyst to adult. The link explains how I do it complete with pictures.

"i just thought it might be a little more cost effective this way. but i guess not. "

Definitely not cost effective, other than the fact the fish can be fed something you want them to have even if they don't eat it directly just by gut loading the brine shrimp with that particular food.

 

[ohio reefer]

Obviously you didn't bother to read the link or you would have known that I grow them out from cyst to adult. The link explains how I do it complete with pictures.

i was asking other people who buy them. i did read the article!

mark

 

[rayjay]

OK Mark.
People who buy them from me store them in the refrigerator and gut load before feeding them to their tanks, or, they set up a holding tank with an air line and feed them on spirulina or Tahitian Blend, which I supply them with.
Stored in a refrigerator, they will live for between 3 to 5 days, and most look dead until the water is warmed up again and they begin swimming around again.
The preferred method is obviously to use a holding tank, but it means doing water changes every 5 to 7 days, depending on whether or not you feed too much or not.
Water changes can be delayed a lot by using a product called Cloram-X, which removes the ammonia.
Hikari sells a liquid version of Cloram-X

 

[TheRealFF]

How do u gut-load brine shrimps? Sorry for asking on ur post mark but since ur asking about brine shrimps

 

[DragonForce]

I buy bags and gutload the brine shrimp with zoecon. I also turn off the powerheads and then drop them in and see my fish go crazy. I always do this with new arivals.

Bags of live brine are cheap and they shouldnt be fed all the time anyways.

 

[rayjay]

How do u gut-load brine shrimps? Sorry for asking on ur post mark but since ur asking about brine shrimps

To gut load, take the portion you wish to use at this time, and place them in an aerated container with the food you wish to gut load with. e.g. spirulina, Tahitian Blend, or a Selco type product, and when the brine have filled their guts with the product chosen, feed them directly to your tank(s).
Time for gut loading depends on the age (size) of the brine, with nauplii just after their mouths form, taking 24 hours, and times lessoning with the increasing size of the brine until full adults take only about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

 

[TheRealFF]

Oh ok, that's what i thought. I tried feeding them with flakes but none of them seem to eat those hehe. Thanks alot for the info

 

[rayjay]

You can take those flakes and crush them up to a fine state, place the crushed portion in the centre of a dense piece of cloth, and fold it up to form a ball, fastening the cloth with an elastic.
Soak the ball in salt water overnight in a mug and then "massage" the food ball until the food starts coming through the material and "fogging" the water.
Now you have appropriate particle sized food for the brine to feed on.

 

[jasno999]

What would happen if I hatched some brine shrimp and then dumped them into my 10gallon SW tank? WOudl they survice in there????

 

[rayjay]

They will survive only if water conditions fall within their needs, have no predators, and the food supply is the proper particle size for them to eat.