Can baby brine shrimp be gut loaded in the dark?

[staylor1490]

I am thinking of hatching baby brine shrimp in the Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish (I will aerate the water), and the container is mostly dark inside with the exception of a small hole for light to come through which attracts the newly hatched baby brine shrimp. I am planning on keeping dwarf seahorses, which need to be fed gut loaded baby brine shrimp. Is it possible for baby brine shrimp to eat in the dark? I will be adding the spirulina powder to the hatchery dish.

 

[SlugSnorter]

I am thinking of hatching baby brine shrimp in the Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish (I will aerate the water), and the container is mostly dark inside with the exception of a small hole for light to come through which attracts the newly hatched baby brine shrimp. I am planning on keeping dwarf seahorses, which need to be fed gut loaded baby brine shrimp. Is it possible for baby brine shrimp to eat in the dark? I will be adding the spirulina powder to the hatchery dish.

it should be fine

 

[Grumblez]

I am thinking of hatching baby brine shrimp in the Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish (I will aerate the water),

I wouldn't aerate it, its designed to keep the eggs from getting in the middle/collection spot if you add flow it will potentially push egg shells into it. I've found they can actually live in that dish for up to a week if you harvest them some before water quality deteriorates to the point ammonia kills them off.

To answer orginial question they will congregate around the hole that light comes in so they won't have any problem eating thats what I do.

 

[SDK]

I would consider getting a proper hatching cone if you are going to try and keep dwarf seahorses. Those dishes are not very prolific producers.

If you feed freshly hatched BBS you can't gutload them. They are going to live off of thier egg sac for a time. Then they need time to enrich, so you are talking about the need to keep them alive for a couple of days in water filled with enrichment foods. A dish hatchery is not an ideal tool for this.

Ideally, you want to enrich them with Selcon and phytoplankton under heavy aeration and with daily water changes.

I would advise you to read up more on the subject and/or further search the forums. You are taking on a more of a major challenge than I think you realize trying to keep dwarf seahorses successfully in the long term.

There is a running joke in the Killifish world that states "Killie keepers are not so much raising fish as they are raising live food". This is even more true for dwarf seahorses. It will be an every day effort and you will want some larger scale production and redundancy built in so you don't find yourself without food. Leaning about culturing phytoplankton and copepods is also going to be helpful..

 

[SlugSnorter]

honestly if you want, take a bucket, fill it with saltwater, get brine shrimp eggs and a sponge powered air filter, a cheap lamp and a brine shrimp net and youll have a DIY semi-good brine shrimp hatchery. You can use a regular method of draining water through a siphon, just use a fine filter sock on the end (below 100 microns is good, lower the better). also youll need a heater and the food for them, and if you can get an airstone it will really help) keep some ph stuff on hand

 

[cperry7467]

I tried adding spirulina powder to my dish about 24 hours after mine hatched and it fouled the water pretty quick killing what had already hatched. I am thinking the lack of aeration and small water volume played a part in it. I haven't tried it again since. I've considered transferring them to another tank to grow and feed but haven't had time to mess with it.

 

[Grumblez]

I tried adding spirulina powder to my dish about 24 hours after mine hatched and it fouled the water pretty quick killing what had already hatched. I am thinking the lack of aeration and small water volume played a part in it. I haven't tried it again since. I've considered transferring them to another tank to grow and feed but haven't had time to mess with it.

Maybe the powder? I use dead or live liquid phyto and no problems.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Maybe the powder? I use dead or live liquid phyto and no problems.

its organic powder so itll decompose faster than phyto by a good margin.

 

[staylor1490]

Thanks! Is it possible to hatch brine shrimp in old tank water with good results or do I need to make new saltwater for each batch? Also, can I have macroalgae (Caulerpa) in my grow out container to reduce nitrates?

 

[SlugSnorter]

Thanks! Is it possible to hatch brine shrimp in old tank water with good results or do I need to make new saltwater for each batch? Also, can I have macroalgae (Caulerpa) in my grow out container to reduce nitrates?

Old tank water should be fine, yes but It might be harder to catch the shrimp and the container will need light