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Questions and Answers to all aspects of keeping Betta Fish!
Questions and Answers to all aspects of keeping Betta Fish!
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Welcome to
BubbleNest.com
Questions and Answers to all aspects of keeping Betta Fish! |
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How to hatch Baby Brine Shrimp (bbs)? |
| - Decapsulated regular BBS eggs are those where the outer shells have been bleached off and the only thing keeping the shrimp together is a tiny membrane, which fish, including small fry, can swallow whole, and we don't even have to hatch the shrimp! no fuss, no mess, just plop the eggs in the tank. These decap. eggs will not hatch in the aquarium or anywhere eles for that matter. You can feed them to fry that have been feeding on bbs for a while an dreconize small orange things as food. Newly hatch fry don't know they are food and will not eat them. When ever you feed decap. eggs try to avoid over feeding because the ones that fall to the flor are mainly passed up and left to rot. You can decap. your own eggs and hatch them - no egg shells to get put in the tank and eaiser for the shrimp to break out which leaves the yolk sac more in tact on the naupli and more nutrition for your fry. This link will tell you more. - Nov 16, 2000 link |
| fraylar - I've been having zero luck growing brine shrimp. The first batch hatched and immediately died. The second batch lasted 24 hours before dying. I was about to give up on them, but decided to try 1 more time using the salt used for salt water aquariums instead of regular aquarium salt. It has trace elements and other bits that aren't in the regular salt. I can't believe the difference it makes. The other 2 batches took approximately 28 hours to hatch. I set up a batch with the new salt at about 4:00pm Tuesday, and they were hatched when I got up Wednesday (about 10:00), and it looks like close to 100% hatched. They are very mobile and look healthy. - Dec 29, 2000 |
| - BTW, all you need is salt, whether it be iodized kitchen sale or sea salt to hatch BBS. - |
| sg - I understand that brine shrimp do better in a high pH situation, and that a higher salinity also makes it easier for them to survive because there is less competition from bacteria and other creatures in the water for their food supply. I've had great success with brine shrimp, and highly recommend the brineshrimpdirect.com kit for the soda bottle hatchery ($14.95? I think). I just ordered another one. No success with the method of putting an airtube in the bottom of a jar--and as I understand, an airstone will kill them because the airbubbles are too small and interfere with swimming, causing them to suffocate. I use regular aquarium salt, but add more than the package says and have very high pH--just use tap water treated as for the fish (chlorine and chloramine remover). This is just my experience with them. Hope it helps someone! - Dec 29, 2000 |
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- Guidelines for hatching brine shrimp :
Salinity - 20 - 30 parts per thousand (ppt) salt solution or approximately 1-2 tablespoons of rock salt per quart (or liter) of water. This equates to around 1.015-1.020 specific gravity. A 20% (or around 1/2 teaspoon per quart) concentration of Epson salt or magnesium sulfate can be added to further buffer the hatching solution. Temperature - Optimum temperature for a 24 hour complete hatch is 80-82?F or 26-28?C. Lowering the temperature would result in a longer hatching time. Do not exceed 30 degree celsius. Light - Illumination is necessary to trigger the hatching mechanism within the embryo within the first few hours of incubation. Maintaining a light source during the entire incubation period is recommended to obtain optimum hatch results and for temperature control. Aeration - Constant aeration is also necessary to provide sufficient oxygen levels for the cysts to metabolize and hatch. A minimum of 3 parts per million dissolved oxygen during the incubation is recommended. Strong aeration will not damage or hurt the brine shrimp cysts or nauplii. pH - A starting pH of 8.0 or higher is recommended. If pH drops below 7.5 during incubation, add a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate or a pH buffer to raise it above 8.0. Stocking Density - 2 grams per quart or approximately one level tablespoon of cysts per quart is recommended. A higher stocking density will result in a lower % hatch. - Nov 16, 2000 link |
Hans -  Equipment needed are one 2-liter soda bottle, an air pump, some stiff tubing, a filter medium (e.g. cloth) to "catch" the bbs, sea salt, and of course bbs eggs.
Fill the bottle about 2/3 full with water. Add about 4 tablespoons of sea salt (or pickling salt) add about 2-3 teaspoons of eggs, feed the tubing through as shown right till the bottom. Attach the air pump to this tubing and turn the air on so it bubbles like mad. You should get bbs like crazy for about 3-4 days and then they kind of peter out.
To harvest them turn the air off and let the contents settle for a few minutes. Bbs eggshells will float, unhatched eggs will sink and the bbs will be somewhere in the lower middle - you will see a pink cloud that is thickest just off the bottom. You can either suck them (bbs) up with a syringe that has a length of bottle or siphon (use the air tube to suck initially and quickly aim the flow at the filter) them, the idea is to pass them through the (cloth) filter or a "shrimp net" over a bowl or something that will separate the bbs and the salt water. Take care to minimize the number of eggshells you get. They are not healthy for the fry. Also be careful if you start your siphon by sucking on it - a little gulp of tank water and you can end up with diarrhea... Wash or swish the net filter into a cup of tank water before pouring the cup of bbs to the fry tank evenly.
Be careful not to over feed as you can foul the fry tank easily. Watch them little seeker killers catch their meal. they really love em. Once they get good at catching the bbs, they will eat until they look like they will pop. just feed them as much as they will eat and they will grow like mad.
Don't forget to make two set ups and alternate them. Have it timed out so that when one quits the other starts. Also you might want to freeze some of them for when a mix fails. I also add a couple of drops of Aquarisol to the bottle to keep bacteria down. Clean the bottles between mixes also.The fry don't like the dead ones quite as much, but they will eat them.
- Oct 25, 2000
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