Larger, Lower Maintenance Brine Shrimp Hatchery

[mrpizzaface]

This is pretty much what I was doing, well, not pretty much, exactly. Except I wasn't hanging, as you can see from my stand posted above.

He slowly walks through the whole process in about 20 minutes as part of his daily routine. He's also still going to have the same problem with unhatched eggs getting into the tanks.

The disc hatchery, so far, is the lowest maintenance, but the daily yield is dramatically less. It is still producing BBS daily (from the initial batch of eggs), but only about 100 or so. I'm going to try it in a bucket and see what happens...

which brand and grade of Brine shrimp eggs are you using? I don't have many unhatched eggs with the method/brand I am using.

 

[sbash]

which brand and grade of Brine shrimp eggs are you using? I don't have many unhatched eggs with the method/brand I am using.

I just opened a new can, and it seems better. The last can was 80%, but it was 18 months or so old, so I was probably only getting 60% hatch rate by the time I finished the can. Even still my new can is 90%, that's 1 in 10 that will not hatch, 10 out of 100, 100 out of 1000, it adds up. My fish are also very tiny, so they won't eat the unhatched eggs.

Either way, that's not really the point here. I'm trying to find a large scale, low maintenance way to hatch eggs.

 

[mrpizzaface]

I think the cone or pop bottle method are the industry standard for hatching brine shrimp. The larger the cone the more shrimp you can hatch. I am trying to understand how or why you are having so many unhatched eggs contaminating your culture using this method, as I really do think it is the most efficient way to hatch large amounts of BBS. I use the highest grade from brine shrimp direct. I have heard a rumor that aquarium coop will be selling a super high hatch rate bbs.

 

[sbash]

I think the cone or pop bottle method are the industry standard for hatching brine shrimp. The larger the cone the more shrimp you can hatch. I am trying to understand how or why you are having so many unhatched eggs contaminating your culture using this method, as I really do think it is the most efficient way to hatch large amounts of BBS. I use the highest grade from brine shrimp direct. I have heard a rumor that aquarium coop will be selling a super high hatch rate bbs.

I thought I explained it quite concisely in my last post. Again, not the point of this thread. "Industry Standard" is also not relevant. I don't do this full time, so I can't justify 20 minutes a day to get a perfect culture every day. Besides, there's nothing wrong with thinking outside the box, or bottle in this case.

Just because my neighbour does something one way, doesn't mean I am not going to try to find an easier way to do it...

 

[mrpizzaface]

what about the pop bottle method do you find high maintenance? I am not trying to trigger you, just trying to help. FWIW I hatch a large amount of brine shrimp daily, it doesn't take much time (less than 10 min), and is very low maintenance. There is nothing wrong with thinking outside the bottle, but I can't help but thinking you are looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

 

[sbash]

what about the pop bottle method do you find high maintenance? I am not trying to trigger you, just trying to help. FWIW I hatch a large amount of brine shrimp daily, it doesn't take much time (less than 10 min), and is very low maintenance. There is nothing wrong with thinking outside the bottle, but I can't help but thinking you are looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

I never said it was high maintenance. I just said I wanted something that was lower maintenance. If we never ask the question "Can this be improved upon", then we will get nowhere.

To satisfy your need to understand why I have a problem with this methodology and you do not; Let's look at it at a problem-solution angle:

Situation:
I need to feed my tiny fish.

Problem:
BBS Feed - Inverted bottle method: Requires daily upkeep for maximum results; unavoidably puts unhatched eggs into the system; noise from the bubbles.
Dry food - lower spawn rate, poor colouration, requires fingers in tanks.

Solution 1:
Disc with weir hatchery. Good results, but too few BBS. Still requires dry supplements. Has been running 1 week without crash. Added second batch of eggs today.

Solution 2:
Bucket with central weir (I'll post this up later). Good results, initial hatch (36 hours) - yield was substantial. Still testing.

Conclusion: TBD

 

[ichthyogeek]

Hmm...maybe I've been approaching this wrong, but...what if you simply decapsulated the BBS eggs, and put them in the tank to hatch overnight? You can put them in a dish or something so they don't roll everywhere and clean up is easier, and once the eggs hatch, you can simply remove all the unhatched eggs.

 

[sbash]

Hmm...maybe I've been approaching this wrong, but...what if you simply decapsulated the BBS eggs, and put them in the tank to hatch overnight? You can put them in a dish or something so they don't roll everywhere and clean up is easier, and once the eggs hatch, you can simply remove all the unhatched eggs.

How does one decapsulate the eggs? Is it like shucking a bulb of garlic, put all the cloves between two bowls and shake!?

 

[ichthyogeek]

How does one decapsulate the eggs? Is it like shucking a bulb of garlic, put all the cloves between two bowls and shake!?

Not really, here’s a guide to how to decapsulate them: https://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/a...uestions/what-decapsulated-brine-shrimp-eggs/

You can store the eggs after they’ve been decapsulated in a brine solution. I’ve heard that you decapsulate eggs up to a week in advance. So you can decapsulate on sundays, which should take no more than an hour, and then in theory, add the decapsulated eggs the day before you want to feed to the tank, si they’ll hatch over 24 hours.