Growing out Brine Shrimp Question

[Moreta]

Hi all,

In my past experience with dwarf seahorses, I've hatched out baby brine, feed half right away, put what was left in clean brine water into the 'fridg and fed them to the tanks within 24 hrs-simple enough. I don't have a dedicated "warm" fishroom so it takes me 48 hrs for a hatch so I've always had 2 batches cooking at a time.

I don't keep dwarf seahorses anymore, just the full sized ones that don't really move around fast enough to clean up baby brine. I've only got four A Cacatouides (fry hopefully on the way as my big female is showing signs she's laid some eggs) and my usual "recipe" produces way too much to feed even if I store them in the 'fridg. :lol: I know I should just buy more dwarf Apistos....

What methods/routines work well for those of you who grow out brine shrimp? Any info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Tracy

 

[farm41]

Tracy,

You could just make smaller batches of bbs. If you are using 1tsp like I do, you could cut back to 1/2tsp.

 

[hedylogus]

This is from my "fish files" (the original author might have been 'TJudy'):

BS are hatched (in normal fashion) in inverted 2 liter bottles and harvested after 48 hours. They separated from empty cysts and moved to growout aquarium. I know that many advocate conical bottoms for growout aquarium, but we have found that we do not need them if we hatch the naupli first and transfer them. For growout aquarium we use 28 5 gallon aquarium, a 30 gallon garbage can, a 25 gallon "muck bucket". two 20 gallon aquarium, and various plastic "sweater boxes" or storage boxes. They all work fine. We have also experimented with various substrates, but find that no substrate works best...except we add a bit of used activated carbon each week (about 1g/l). First I use synthetic sea salt. Other(homemade) mixes have not worked for me beyond the first week. In my case I reuse the water which I remove from the marine aquaria in my classroom. The water is about 3.5% salinity..or..with a specific gravity of about 1.026. This is heavily aerated for the first week, moderately aerated the second week, and gently aerated then after. Twice a day we mix up (scale to your needs) 1 tbs. spirulinia powder (expensive but worth it) in 1.5 liter of pure water. This is blended for 4 - 5 minutes. The suspension of spirulinia is allowed to settle for the next 5 to 10 minutes. As it settles the liquid suspension forms on the bottom and a foam layer on top. The suspension is poured through a brine shrimp net to remove larger particles and most of the foam. This liquid is then added to bs aquaria at a rate of about 10 - 50 cc per 20 liters - but only in aquaria which have cleared out the previous feeding and resultant bacterial cloud from the water. The amount depends upon the feeding rate of that particular aquarium. It is surprising that when we measure the dissolved oxygen tolerance - we have found that shrimp surviving DO concentrations below 1 mg/l. Which brings me to color. If the DO is low over a sustained period of time - say a 5 to 7 days, you will notice the shrimp changing from a green to reddish. This is reportedly caused by development of an oxygen carrying pigment - hemoglobin or similar pigment. Synthesis of a substance (any substance) is metabolically costly so undoubtedly the nutrient value, growth rate, fecundicity, or some other life parameter is compromised with lower dissolved oxygen rates. Harvest is done with a standard aquarium net. The larger netting allows immature shrimp to remain in culture. Cultures which are not overharvested will become self sustaining in 4 to 6 weeks. Water changes can be minimized with the addition of 1g/l of used (or new if you have the $) activated carbon.

Hope that helps.

 

[Moreta]

Thanks! That article is exactly what I needed-you guys always have the most useful info! I swear I've learned more surfing here than on any other FW board.

Farm41- I know I can cut back on the hatch size but it's the same amount of work to hatch 1/2 teaspoon as a whole one. I was just wondering if a colony could be sustained for a couple of reasons
1) maybe saving some time (doesn't look that way from what I'm reading) and effort (probably not), and
2) my local fish place will buy any baby or adult brine I overproduce if I really wanted to go to that amount of hassle. Might do that, help offset my expenses a bit if I can get it down to a working system.

I still think the solution to my problem is to hurry up and set up the fishroom I've planned now instead of this summer...more Apisto species to feed BBS to... :wink:

Thanks again,

Tracy

 

[aspen]

tracy, you want to feed your bbs in the first 24 hours of free swiming, or when they are still yellow. in the first 12 hours is best. this yellow is the yolk sack and is the most nutritious part of them to your fish. growing them out will require proper feeding and care. and, this is not what you want imo. feed your fish the little ones, you will be doing the best thing, imo.

rick

 

[Moreta]

tracy, you want to feed your bbs in the first 24 hours of free swiming, or when they are still yellow. in the first 12 hours is best. this yellow is the yolh sack and is the most nutritious part of them to your fish. growing them out will require proper feeding and care. and, this is not what you want imo. feed your fish the little ones, you will be doing the best thing, imo.

rick

Thanks all, I think that smaller batches is the best way to go. Thanks to all, once again!

Tracy