Freezing baby brine shrimp

[trkchezz]

My angelfish are just about free swimmers, I have brine shrimp that should hatch tonight or early tomorrow just in time for them. Would I be able to freeze some of the brine shrimp so I wouldn't have to have live brine shrimp going all the time. With family and a full time job time
Is limited. TIA

 

[coralbandit]

Freeze them as quickly after they hatch as possible.The longer they live the less nutritional value they hold[the yolk sack]...
I freeze BBS when I have extra with out issue.I use mini ice cube trays made of silicone.
Angels are pigs even as wigglers and fry so as long as they eat them you should be fine.
My angels ate almost everything right away , but some need to see the movement of live food,so you may need to make shrimp every day for a couple days or a week maybe..
They sell de capsulated brine shrimp eggs that you can feed directly to the fry.They are not hatchable but easy to use and last a long time...
Decapsulated Brine Shrimp
Good luck !

 

[trkchezz]

Do you try and remove as much water as possible or just kinda fill the tray up from hatching cup?

 

[coralbandit]

I strain and rinse all my BBS in fresh water with a sieve...
Artemia Hatching Sieve
After they are rinsed I only pour a small amount of fresh water through the sieve upside down to get the BBS into a small pyrex bowl.
From there I use a large syringe for injecting meats or a turkey baster to feed towards the cloud of fry..I let wigglers free swim one day to completely absorb the yolk sak before I feed.I run up to 4 hatchers at a time to feed fry.Most daily extra can be fed to other fish I have so I make whole batches for freezing..
I get my eggs also from the same link I posted above .I get the 85% hatch rate .
Brine shrimp direct has great eggs that hatch in 24 hours or less,I let get 24 hours.

 

[trkchezz]

Thanks coral! Any tips for brine shrimp, I've hatched a few batches but can't seem to get the numbers I want. Haven't gotten the "system" down just right yet, if that makes sense? Can you share a picture of your set up? Wouldn't mind growing some out to feed to my breeding Guppies or adult angels.

 

[coralbandit]

I use 2 liter bottles inverted with cap on bottom.
I use rigid airline to make sure the bubbles are at bottom of bottle.No airstone, too much bubbles puts eggs out of water on side of bottle.Just enough air to keep them from settling .
When I harvest I pull the air out ,let the eggs float and shrimp settle and use a separate [ dedicated ] rigid airline to syphon [again from bottom of bottle] into the sieve.
The sieve fits in a small Toms Dip and Pour ,so I reuse my salt water a couple times until it is easy to tell it is not clean..
The easiest part for me is I have a 75 g reef set up so I just use that for my saltwater source..
IMO low hatch rates at e from poor eggs .
If you got them from LFS you would not believe the difference in quality and price from Brine Shrimp direct.