Best way to raise baby brine?

[Skipponator]

So I finally thought I'd raise my own baby brine the other day. I put about 4 gallons of water in a 10g and set heater at 87 and put 2 airstones in there. So I read the package, and dumped the entire vile of eggs in. Next day I have gobs of shrimp. So the next day (yesterday) they are still alive. Well my Dad had to work until midnight last night since he's acting Chief of the whole heating plant of campus and the gas company said you've got 2 hours to convert your gas boiler sover to fuel oil before the gas company turns the gas off since it's bitterly cold. Long story short, he stays at my house instead of driving 20 miles more, so I turn the lights off and airstones so he can sleep.

Wake up and go into the room and it reaks like rotten fish. Obviously must have killed everything so I dumped it all out and cleaned the tank.

Obviously I did WAY to much brine. What's the best way to do it and keep them alive?

Should I get a continuous hatch in feed thing?

Thanks,

-Skip

[clownfishcrazy]

Don't use the whole vile of brine shrimp eggs, just use a capfull at a time. And don't turn the air off, also don't use any airstones because the fine bubbles will get stuck in the shrimps gills and then they will die.

[jules77]

I found the best way is to have multiple containers ready to go. I just use old tank water from a water change. use airline tubing alone off a airpump, I use less than the reccomended amount of eggs on the package. Start with a 2 liter, then after they are getting bigger split them into 3 containers. I use a little bit of dry baby formula every 3rd day. They seem to grow pretty fast even without any heat. I would drop the heat to around 80. 87 seems really high and will produce a lot of evaporation. I just put my containers near the furnace in the basement with a distant light on, nothing direct. Hope that helps, JZ

[MyUnderWaterWorld]

I found that if you use anything with a flat surface, it would take a lot longer for all the brine shrimp eggs to hatch. Use something like a 2 litter bottle or make your own funnel which would keep the eggs suspended insted of just laying at the bottom. It took me about 36 hours for the shrimps to hatch in a 10gal, versus 20 hours with a funnel. If it saves you time I guess it's worth it.

[Soltaker]

**56K'ers.....sorry for the size of teh pics **

I used 2 brine kits from SF and the Premium Brine eggs from http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/. Then I did pretty much what Jules posted. Basically I just got the kits for the bases. Then I cut 2 2-liter bottles in half. Add in air lines from a pump (valves are a good idea, so the air flow in the bottles isn't too dramatic) I also used old tank water. As for heat, the only heat the bottles recieved was from the ambient temp of the fish room, and a small strip light I placed behind the bottles. I had a fresh batch of baby brine shrimp every other day. Here are a few pics from when I had this set-up....

The eggs come in a pouch. I just used an old sherbert container for the convenience


This is about how much I added for each batch. Depending on the size of your tank and it's inhabinants will determine how many eggs to hatch.


Here you can see the BBS suspended in the water. The dark blotches you see are the shells which have settled along the side. MOST of the shells should rise to the surface of the water tho.


And a view from the top....


Hope that helps you out a little...

[Dwayne]

You guys work too hard at this.

Drill a hole in the bottle cap for the rigid air tube. Cut the end of the rigid tube at long angle. This helps prevent the tube from becoming clogged. Fill the bottle 3/4 full of salt water (fresh). Put in just enough eggs to cover the surface of the water. Insert the rigid tube through the cap and let it boil. In 36~hrs, you have shrimp. Turn off the air pump; let the shrimp settle to the bottom. Siphon them out from the bottom using another rigid tube. I let the siphon empty into a brine shrimp net. Then I back wash the net in the tank releasing the shrimp into the tank. I normally run two or three bottles at a time offset on start times.

They don't need the light. Keep the bottle 'boiling'. Harvest when hatched, even if you dont use them all.

The only time I use the inverted bottle method is when I use decapsulated eggs. Decapsulated eggs do better with the inverted bottle method, but the hatching process is the same.

FWIW