Okay. Just curious, how much does a hatchery setup cost?
You can make a hatchery quite simply and cheaply. It all depends on what you have available on hand. The following is an instruction sheet I made for how I make brine shrimp in 24 hrs or less. The picture referred in the sheet can be found here:
Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community - Andy Sager's Album: Instruction charts - Picture
Hatching Brine, this is what I do:
You will need an adjustable heater, a thermometer, a fluorescent light (most brands now suggest light for optimum hatching), some airline, an airstone, an air pump, non iodized salt, a container (preferably glass) that can hold at least 1/2 gal of water and water.
Make the temp of the water between 88 and 90 degrees.
Make a solution equal to 5 tablespoons of salt per 1 gal of water. (2 1/2 Tablespoons per 1/2 gal of water)
Make sure airpump is pumping enough air to circulate the bs eggs and they don't cluster on the bottom.
Make sure airstone produces larger bubbles or airline has a weight to hold it down at the bottom of the container. Position the end so that the water circulates in a circle.
This is my steps to having live brine within 24 hours:
My heaters are already set to the temp and I just place them in one of the other BS jars when I clean and set up a new jar. (I use 3 jars)
I add the water, the right amount of salt for the amount of water (This pic is of a 1/2 gal glass bowl so it gets 2 1/2 tablespoons of salt), the eggs.
I take the bowl back outside (I keep mine outside) and put the heater back in the bowl, the airline back into the bowl, cover with the aluminum foil top I made to stop the splashing then go about my business. By the next day, I have live baby brine shrimp. Use immediately.
You'll notice the light is behind the bowl and I am not using an airstone but an open airline with a weight at the bottom. Anyone telling you it needs to be more complicated than this is full of it and doesn't know what they are talking about.lol You need to understand that the reason the salt level works is because of the high temp. Colder water will make this solution higher in salinity so you would need to lessen the amount of salt if you turn down the temp. (Use a converting program online to see what the salinity at 90 degrees is equal to at the lower temp.) HOWEVER, colder temps make the BS take longer to hatch so why do that?
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The other route is to buy a pre made brine shrimp hatchery which can be expensive. FYI: I've hatched out billions of shrimp over the years just using the above method.
The cost of my setup will vary. I found the bowl in the picture at a local flea market and paid 50 cents for it. (I've paid as high as $1.00 for glass jars.) The most expensive thing in my set up is the heater but the ones I use I have had since the mid 1980s in my last hatchery. (Good equipment, cared for properly, will last a long time
) If you have one on hand, no need to buy a new one. The air was a bleed off from my fish tanks and you should always have some extra airline laying around "just in case"
The weight can be a simple rock with a rubber band.( I'm using a fishing sinker because I am in that business and have access to them.) My set up is easy to clean, easy to set up and extremely cost efficient.
Hope this helps
