Brine Shrimp cultivation

[bristleworm]

Baby brine shrimp

 

[Privateye]

How long after hatching are they still nutritious? I've seen numbers range from a few hours to almost a day.

Fair question! It decreases over time as they consume their yolk sacs, and the rate can of course depend on temperature, but they should still have some nutrition for about 12-24 hours after hatching. Once they need to be fed, the yolk sac can effectively be considered depleted. Ideally you'd use them within 12 hours after hatching though.

BBS refers to "baby brine shrimp". Newly-hatched artemia nauplii.

 

[Freenow54]

I buy them from amazon. But they used to be like $8 a few years ago now its $25 so I haven't got it in a while, but they do work. Search for artemia eggs

Not for sale anywhere I found except the UK, Maybe eBay. I think I can guess why eh Donald ?

 

[Privateye]

The INVE brand has a great reputation. They have a variety of distributors throughout North America. I think the smallest can you can buy is about 450g, but they're from the Great Salt Lake and they have a few variants to offer. For instance, the "sep-art" artemia cysts are magnetic, so once they hatch you can remove the unhatched cysts by passing the water over a magnet. They offer plain artemia cysts too though.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Not for sale anywhere I found except the UK, Maybe eBay. I think I can guess why eh Donald ?

They are on amazon.ca

 

[Freenow54]

They are on amazon.ca

Thanks I was looking for the pictured ones you showed before. So what do you actually do , since I read that you have to feed fish the newly hatched ?

 

[CrewePD210]

These work great and are about as easy as it gets for BBS.
Just take the little cup out and swish in the tank

Yes that is the one I have. It works well and i though about the soda bottle type, but this does well for now.

 

[CrewePD210]

Some notes and practices:

1. The artemia from the Great Salt Lake is considered the highest-quality.
2. As artemia hatch the pH can drop. It can be helpful to add bicarb with the cysts.
3. Nannochloropsis works well as a feed.
4. The water should be changed daily (or bacteria levels rise quickly).
5. BBS has the best nutritional properties. As they age they need to be gut-loaded to be nutritious for your fish. Often times this is when you'd add an "enrichment" diet instead of their normal feed. Without gut-loading they're kind of like a potato chip for fish: fun to eat but little nutrition.

Yea, I was thinking the Wrasse and the basslet would enjoy chasing them around. I have a chameleon wrasse that is a killer of anything small and mobile, and he is constantly hunting for things. The baslet is just as bad of an assassin and will eat any small thing he can catch. It would be more for some variety / activity for my more active fish.