Raising brine shrimps to adult

[davidjp1982]

I've started to keep the leftovers of my BBS hatchlings after draining 90% of the water from my 2l bottle hatchery in a 12x5x10" tub sat in my kitchen and feeding yeast / paprika - no extra light or aeration I just swish the tub a few times a day. After a week I have a nice swarming mass of orange in the tub, just wondering if anyone has any tips on keeping a ready supply of BS on the go?

 

[davidjp1982]

Perhaps unsurprisingly they all died! Upgraded the operation somewhat - hopefully have more success with this! Oh and a side note I hatched this lot with "Cornish sea salt" @ 5 teaspoons per litre and straight tap water with a lamp keeping 80 degrees, I also only ran the lamp from 11am to midnight and had a 99% hatch rate in 24 hours compared to maybe 50% at best with table salt and tank or dechlorinated tap water and 24/7 light.

 

[skoram]

I too am curious about this as my adult apistos seem to have no interest in BBS - presumably because they are too small. I gave it a very, very rudimentary attempt a few weeks ago and lost all my shrimp as well.

There is some conflicting information out there about what is needed. Some people say that salinity must be raised by a lot. Others have claimed success just by dumping the leftovers (same water and all) into a separate container and letting it sit.

I do get the sense that raising the salinity at least somewhat is important, either by adding more salt or through evaporation of the original hatching solution. It also seems that the addition or development of green algae (like the green water necessary for the culturing of daphnia) is very helpful for brine shrimp survival as well.

 

[Karin]

There is this receip you can try. For the first time I am being able to keep adults alive more than three weeks using it... there are also couples. I dont really know how long they will survive yet. Feeding spirulina and yeast.

 

[Mol_PMB]

This is interesting - thanks my BBS hatchery is on a windowsill and has developed green water of its own accord! At the moment I am only harvesting BBS but I might try leaving some a bit longer.

My Dicrossus fry that I started the BBS for are now big enough to be eating small bloodworms!

 

[Karin]

great! Hope the info will help!

 

[gerald]

Don't rely on the algae that grows in the Artemia culturing container as food. Whatever algae grows in there is usually whatever species the shrimp are NOT eating (unless you're using ponds or large pools outside). Algae for feeding shrimp should be grown in a separate container without shrimp.

Karin - Thanks for that hatching & growing recipe. It looks like the salinity for hatching is about 10 g/L (30% seawater) and the growing salinity is about 49 g/L (140% seawater). For me they hatch just fine at normal seawater strength (32 to 35 g/L), but they certainly dont need it that high.

 

[Karin]

Good Gerald, another option a friend of mine uses to hatch BBS is putting one-two fingers high cook salt in a glass jar with water, let it stand for a day untouched to allow for a salt gradient to form and then add the eggs. Nauplii will stay at some point in the middle of the jar and eggshells on top. No airstone. Personally I have tried several protocols and yields always vary... Grindal are so much easier to grow!

Besides the hatching story, using the growing recipe allowed me to keep some adult shrimps alive and healthy for the moment, feeding sparsely spirulina (a whole capsule every two days and a few drops of yeasts dissolved in the same culture medium alternating with spirulina) (depending on the volume of the culture and the density of shrimps of course)... I haven't yet change any water. I use some air bubbling. I can see different adult stages swimming now.

 

[duane stuermer]

After my indoor hatcheries are depleted, I toss the remains in 2 preform ponds, and an old upturned skylight in the back yard starting in April, and can usually pull out net fulls of adults starting in late May, and throughout the entire summer, until maybe mid October.

I don't feed, algae is naturally growing at the start.
I find brine fly larvae in the leaf littler and detritus, and some of my fish also eat that.

 

[gerald]

I knew I guy who used an old bent canoe for that purpose. It's amazing what kinds of junk you can use to grow fish food in, if your family and neighbors dont complain too much. At least with brine shrimp you wont get mosquitoes breeding in the containers (unless you live within range of saltmarsh skeeters).