I'm sure there are other threads and videos on this, but it was surprisingly difficult for me to find good information on the interwebs, so I thought I'd post it here. It's been a pretty rewarding project, so I wanted to share my method.
It all started with a goofy idea to buy a brine shrimp hatchery and feed the little baby hatchlings to my fish. My normally 'boring' little fish go nuts anytime I put these live baby brine in the tank. I'm feeding a huge variety of frozen food (including frozen brine) but never see anything like the reaction to these live baby brine. My fish have no reaction whatsoever to the frozen baby brine, and they won't even attempt to eat them. This has progressed into a "well, why can't I just grow them to adults"....
(above: I found this amazing little disc on the web, and it's perfect for the job of hatching eggs. I fill it with 1.020sg saltwater to the fill line). I think it is made by brineshrimpdirect, but I just ordered it on Amazon for simplicity. I believe the Amazon purchase goes through them anyway.
Above: I use the tiny spoon that comes with the brine shrimp eggs to surround the outside ring with 1 spoonful. This produces tens of thousands of baby brine, and when I use 2 scoops of eggs it is way too many to keep alive. 1 scoop gives me plenty to feed my fish each day, as well as enough to stock the grow out tank (shown later).
Above: I put the lid on the disc. and put my desk lamp over it. That's it. No pump, no airstone, nothing. I leave the desk lamp on for maybe 16 hrs per day.
Above: 1 day later (and for the next 4 to 5 days) I have thousands of little baby brine in the middle collection area. I get them out by pulling up that little white strainer cup and putting them into a dixie cup which is filled with saltwater from my tank. I repeat this straining and putting baby brine in the dixie cup whenever I walk by and notice it is full and ready (which is quite often). Usually by day 5 there are only a few dozen brine shrimp in the center (instead of thousands of them), and the water in the disc gets cloudy and starts to smell. That's when I dump the contents (which is the leftover egg casings outside the outer ring still), wash it out briefly and let it air dry, and then start it all over whenever I want to, usually the next week.
Each day, I give my fish a little treat of the baby brine from the dixie cup, and then I put the rest of the contents of the dixie cup into a larger container with 1.020sg saltwater. I call this 'Pre-School". There is a very slow air bubbler in there. I dose 2ml of phytoplankton to this every morning and evening, although I'm not sure it is necessary since most of these babies still have their egg sac handy. The first dozen times I did "Pre-School", I intended to raise them to adults in this same container, but everything died every time, after only a few days. I think I had far too many babies in there, and I was not regularly feeding phyto. I suspect that as soon as their egg casings nutritional value run out, they die quickly unless there is food in the water column. Now nothing is dying in Pre-School anymore because I run Pre-School for 3 or 4 days max, and I dose phyto as stated above twice per day. I usually can see that the pre-schoolers are no longer little orange dots, but are mostly white and very tiny but swimming pretty independently.
Above: When Pre-school needs to close (by 4 days or whenever the water appears milky), I just pour the entire contents of the pre-school container into the drain through this coffee strainer that my wife let me 'borrow'. I don't think any brine really get through the strainer, so I don't strain the water that gets through a second time anymore.
The pre-teens that just graduate pre-school are added to a cheap 5 gallon tank that has a moderate amount of air coming from a stone in the center of it. This is "High School". Just enough air to cause a little current, but not so much air that the brine cannot swim on their own. I had far too much air power in the beginning and I believe I some of the brine got hurt because they swam all over in a weird manner and I think I hurt their fins with the turbulence.
Because I am paranoid from all the die offs I had in the beginning pre-schools, I have 1 Marine Pure ball from my DT sump in the back left of the tank in the picture. I have no idea if this is actually helping anything, but I never have anything but 'safe' on the badge since I added the ball. This tank is kept at 1.023sg, and has a heater that maintains 76 degrees. A very cheap leftover light sits on top of the cover, and runs 24 hrs per day. Since my lid is pretty tight, I never have to add RODI or anything.
I feed this 5 gallon tank 10mL of phyto each AM and each PM. At week 2, the brine are truly adult because you can see them mating and carrying around egg sacks. I feed 20mL of phyto each morning and evening when they get this size. If I see that the water is clearing, I just add more phyto to my morning or evening dosing routine. I think these guys are constant feeders so I've been trying to keep the water a bit green. Occasionally I've been putting selcon into the tank to increase their vitamin content once i feed them.
Above: Each week when I do a water change on my DT, I take 5 gallons of that horrible yuck water from the DT and I let it sit for an hour to settle most of the yuck to the bottom of the bucket. All but the bottom 2 inches of the water in the bucket is mostly clear after settling. I then use the above pictured method with the coffee strainer to drain the water out of the Brine-Shrimp High School tank, keeping the top of the strainer above the water level as it lowers. I then siphon all the (clear?) water I can from the yuck bucket to the high school tank and then dose new phyto.
Above: I drain the tank down a good 95% where there is only a few inches of water in it. This is a view from the top with brine shrimp that are almost 2 weeks old. You can see there are several generations of shrimp in there because every week I add new babies from the hatchery. As there is some serious mating going on now, I'm curious if I will even have to keep hatching eggs as they may self-populate long term as they reach adulthood.
Lastly, above is a simple phytoplankton culture that I've been running for several months. Each week I take out 500mL from each flask, and store that culture in the refrigerator. I add a very tiny amount (0.5mL) of liquid fertilizer (the tiny bottle of fertilizer I received will last me a decade). I then replace the 500mL I took with new 1.020sg saltwater. People online show this being done with just air tube agitation, but that didn't work well for me and I added a couple of inexpensive magnetic stirrers in addition to the air bubbles. It is lit by a cheap light 16 hrs per day. Been working great like this for many months. I've never had a culture crash yet, but I know my days are numbered especially now that I said it...
Thanks,
It all started with a goofy idea to buy a brine shrimp hatchery and feed the little baby hatchlings to my fish. My normally 'boring' little fish go nuts anytime I put these live baby brine in the tank. I'm feeding a huge variety of frozen food (including frozen brine) but never see anything like the reaction to these live baby brine. My fish have no reaction whatsoever to the frozen baby brine, and they won't even attempt to eat them. This has progressed into a "well, why can't I just grow them to adults"....
(above: I found this amazing little disc on the web, and it's perfect for the job of hatching eggs. I fill it with 1.020sg saltwater to the fill line). I think it is made by brineshrimpdirect, but I just ordered it on Amazon for simplicity. I believe the Amazon purchase goes through them anyway.
Above: I use the tiny spoon that comes with the brine shrimp eggs to surround the outside ring with 1 spoonful. This produces tens of thousands of baby brine, and when I use 2 scoops of eggs it is way too many to keep alive. 1 scoop gives me plenty to feed my fish each day, as well as enough to stock the grow out tank (shown later).
Above: I put the lid on the disc. and put my desk lamp over it. That's it. No pump, no airstone, nothing. I leave the desk lamp on for maybe 16 hrs per day.
Above: 1 day later (and for the next 4 to 5 days) I have thousands of little baby brine in the middle collection area. I get them out by pulling up that little white strainer cup and putting them into a dixie cup which is filled with saltwater from my tank. I repeat this straining and putting baby brine in the dixie cup whenever I walk by and notice it is full and ready (which is quite often). Usually by day 5 there are only a few dozen brine shrimp in the center (instead of thousands of them), and the water in the disc gets cloudy and starts to smell. That's when I dump the contents (which is the leftover egg casings outside the outer ring still), wash it out briefly and let it air dry, and then start it all over whenever I want to, usually the next week.
Each day, I give my fish a little treat of the baby brine from the dixie cup, and then I put the rest of the contents of the dixie cup into a larger container with 1.020sg saltwater. I call this 'Pre-School". There is a very slow air bubbler in there. I dose 2ml of phytoplankton to this every morning and evening, although I'm not sure it is necessary since most of these babies still have their egg sac handy. The first dozen times I did "Pre-School", I intended to raise them to adults in this same container, but everything died every time, after only a few days. I think I had far too many babies in there, and I was not regularly feeding phyto. I suspect that as soon as their egg casings nutritional value run out, they die quickly unless there is food in the water column. Now nothing is dying in Pre-School anymore because I run Pre-School for 3 or 4 days max, and I dose phyto as stated above twice per day. I usually can see that the pre-schoolers are no longer little orange dots, but are mostly white and very tiny but swimming pretty independently.
Above: When Pre-school needs to close (by 4 days or whenever the water appears milky), I just pour the entire contents of the pre-school container into the drain through this coffee strainer that my wife let me 'borrow'. I don't think any brine really get through the strainer, so I don't strain the water that gets through a second time anymore.
The pre-teens that just graduate pre-school are added to a cheap 5 gallon tank that has a moderate amount of air coming from a stone in the center of it. This is "High School". Just enough air to cause a little current, but not so much air that the brine cannot swim on their own. I had far too much air power in the beginning and I believe I some of the brine got hurt because they swam all over in a weird manner and I think I hurt their fins with the turbulence.
Because I am paranoid from all the die offs I had in the beginning pre-schools, I have 1 Marine Pure ball from my DT sump in the back left of the tank in the picture. I have no idea if this is actually helping anything, but I never have anything but 'safe' on the badge since I added the ball. This tank is kept at 1.023sg, and has a heater that maintains 76 degrees. A very cheap leftover light sits on top of the cover, and runs 24 hrs per day. Since my lid is pretty tight, I never have to add RODI or anything.
I feed this 5 gallon tank 10mL of phyto each AM and each PM. At week 2, the brine are truly adult because you can see them mating and carrying around egg sacks. I feed 20mL of phyto each morning and evening when they get this size. If I see that the water is clearing, I just add more phyto to my morning or evening dosing routine. I think these guys are constant feeders so I've been trying to keep the water a bit green. Occasionally I've been putting selcon into the tank to increase their vitamin content once i feed them.
Above: Each week when I do a water change on my DT, I take 5 gallons of that horrible yuck water from the DT and I let it sit for an hour to settle most of the yuck to the bottom of the bucket. All but the bottom 2 inches of the water in the bucket is mostly clear after settling. I then use the above pictured method with the coffee strainer to drain the water out of the Brine-Shrimp High School tank, keeping the top of the strainer above the water level as it lowers. I then siphon all the (clear?) water I can from the yuck bucket to the high school tank and then dose new phyto.
Above: I drain the tank down a good 95% where there is only a few inches of water in it. This is a view from the top with brine shrimp that are almost 2 weeks old. You can see there are several generations of shrimp in there because every week I add new babies from the hatchery. As there is some serious mating going on now, I'm curious if I will even have to keep hatching eggs as they may self-populate long term as they reach adulthood.
Lastly, above is a simple phytoplankton culture that I've been running for several months. Each week I take out 500mL from each flask, and store that culture in the refrigerator. I add a very tiny amount (0.5mL) of liquid fertilizer (the tiny bottle of fertilizer I received will last me a decade). I then replace the 500mL I took with new 1.020sg saltwater. People online show this being done with just air tube agitation, but that didn't work well for me and I added a couple of inexpensive magnetic stirrers in addition to the air bubbles. It is lit by a cheap light 16 hrs per day. Been working great like this for many months. I've never had a culture crash yet, but I know my days are numbered especially now that I said it...
Thanks,
