A word of praise for the Brine Shrimp "Hatchery Dish"

hart24601

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I am going to targets sps corals. There are good studies indicating very rapid growth using baby brine shrimp I have used ON baby brine shrimp before and it seemed ok, however I had jellyfish for a while and they only thrived on fresh hatched and not the ON ones, so I am going to see if fresh is better for feeding coral too.

https://www.advancedaquarist.com/bl...rine-shrimp-drastically-increase-their-growth
 

Mykesocalreef

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An easy way to "try it" on your reef is a little jar of Ocean Nutrition's Instant Baby Brine Shrimp.
51%2BV6s8UowL.jpg

(actual size the jar is <2" tall...not as big as the image appears to me)

Not live, but still has the buoyancy and other positive attributes of newly hatched brine shrimp.

My corals really like them and there's no noticeable waste in the skimmer or elsewhere. Short of hatching your own, this is my favorite. They're shelf-stable until opened too, so that's nice....they make a nice backup food in some instances.

image.png I've mostly hatched out of a DIY version of one pictured and it works pretty well too:
After seeing the OP I thought to myself "that looks simple enough". I feed a variety of stuff and like the thought of more live food as I currently feed live blackworms. I do not have mandarins or any type of fish that only eats live food. I guess maybe I am looking to feed the coral some live food. Just curious to if it is "worth" it.
 

Maximus

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I used this same hatcher in the 80's to feed baby clownfish. The shrimp are attracted to light and will swim to the center when the cover is on. The barriers keep the egg cases back as they float.
Ahh that makes sense! Forgot about the cover! I ordered it so we will see what happens. Thanks!
 

mcarroll

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I guess maybe I am looking to feed the coral some live food. Just curious to if it is "worth" it.

Live or not, the answer is yes for corals. :) The instant product is an easy way to see if your corals will go for it as a food item for <$10. Nothing more than a glass jar to recycle if you/they don't like it for some reason. (Most will like it, but if you want to test them out for cheap...)
 

Maximus

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I think I used too many scoops, lol! Is 3 scoops too many? How long are you supposed to keep the light on? 24/7? Thanks!
 
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biophilia

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I think I used too many scoops, lol! Is 3 scoops too many? How long are you supposed to keep the light on? 24/7? Thanks!
Three scoops is fine if you have a big tank! If not, you could always set up a separate "sea monkey" biotope tank! As for the light, I just have mine sitting on the stand next to my reef tank so it gets dim light from my AI Prime for about 10 hours per day. You only really need to turn the light source on for a few minutes before collecting them so that they swim to the center. Even ambient light from a window would probably work fine.
 

Maximus

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Three scoops is fine if you have a big tank! If not, you could always set up a separate "sea monkey" biotope tank! As for the light, I just have mine sitting on the stand next to my reef tank so it gets dim light from my AI Prime for about 10 hours per day. You only really need to turn the light source on for a few minutes before collecting them so that they swim to the center. Even ambient light from a window would probably work fine.
Ahh thank you! What is the average time for hatching?
 
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biophilia

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Ahh thank you! What is the average time for hatching?
It'll depend on a number of things (like salinity of the water you're using and water temperature). The room mine is in is about 72 degrees and I've been using 35ppt water. I'd estimate 50% of the eggs hatch at about the 24 hour mark and the remaining eggs hatch by the end of the second day.
 

Maximus

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Dang, I love this thing!! I used 3 scoops and I have had baby brine for 3-4 days and still have more! Couldn't be any easier. Do you guys rinse the brine shrimp before feeding? Not really sure why I would need to though. Thanks again for the idea!
 

LetItReef

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I bought mine months ago from brine shrimp direct and I must say the simplest method to use- no light and no heater. If I remember it correctly I use SG water about 1.022-.23.
 
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biophilia

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Dang, I love this thing!! I used 3 scoops and I have had baby brine for 3-4 days and still have more! Couldn't be any easier. Do you guys rinse the brine shrimp before feeding? Not really sure why I would need to though. Thanks again for the idea!

I don't rinse them since they're strained of most of the culture water anyway.
 

Luna

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Can I add sea monkey packets to my reef?
 

jd371

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Okay, I set mine up and after 4 days...nothing! I used freshly mixed water that I use for the wc @ 1.025 room temp. For the life of me I can't remember where I put the vial of eggs that came with the hatchery so I had to use some of the old ones I had laying around. I'm going to the lfs this weekend and I'll buy some fresh eggs and try again. The eggs do have an expiration date correct?
 

LetItReef

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Okay, I set mine up and after 4 days...nothing! I used freshly mixed water that I use for the wc @ 1.025 room temp. For the life of me I can't remember where I put the vial of eggs that came with the hatchery so I had to use some of the old ones I had laying around. I'm going to the lfs this weekend and I'll buy some fresh eggs and try again. The eggs do have an expiration date correct?

Yes, it does have an expiration date.
 

JRAD

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The hatching dish works great. I measured the amount of salt with a kitchen scale. I just used Morton’s kosher salt. They hatched like crazy!!
 

ice fish

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Just bought this myself. I got lazy and decided to try it with just some of my reef water since itd be going back in my tank anyways with the brine and within 24 hours i was getting lots of shrimp! Pretty impressed with this to say the least. My only little "gripe" is that i feel the baby brine are super tiny so only my smallest corals might get one or two of them
 
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