Who feeds CORALS with hatched BRINE SHRIMP?

[Reef and Dive]

Some people still question coral nutrition with extra food and advice just fish poop, while others recognize the important role of coral feeding.
This topic is not meant to discuss that subject.

Many articles have discussed that matter and many even tried different feeding methods.

Scientific articles have shown over and over the benefit of feeding live hatched brine shrimp, frequently with much better results than many other feeding strategies (or products).

My question is why so few of us reefers use this method??? I have even searched on R2R and found topics about feeding brine to fish, but why is it so overlooked for corals, while there are so many scientific articles on the subject???

I've been hatching brine shrimp every 3-4 days and have been feeding my corals for some weeks, but that's far from long enough to tell my personal view of it, but I'm interested to know who else have tried this...

Attached goes one of these amazing studies, but there are many others...

 

[drewwCh]

Interesting, will have to try this right away

 

[Azedenkae]

I do, but my main problem is egg shells EVERYWHERE. XD So trying to find a better way.

 

[Reef and Dive]

I do, but my main problem is egg shells EVERYWHERE. XD So trying to find a better way.

I’ve been removig egg shells collecting the bottom of the bottle while shinning with strong light...

Have you noticed coral improvement in growth/color?

 

[MaxTremors]

I don’t have the patience to hatch them myself, but I do target and broadcast feed frozen just hatched brine shrimp, I don’t really see a big difference between them being live or frozen. Pretty much all of my corals that put out feeding tentacles seem to enjoy them. I mix the baby brine shrimp with regular brine or mysis shrimp and feed that to the larger tentacled corals (Duncans, Favias, acans) and to some of my mushrooms and maxi mini carpet nems.

 

[mdb_talon]

I use rotifers for live coral food.

 

[LacViet]

I put decapsulated brine shrimp eggs directly to the tank once in a while. Figure if they hatched, another food for fish and corals. If not, they can still be food for corals and pods or whatever animals eat them.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Some people still question coral nutrition with extra food and advice just fish poop, while others recognize the important role of coral feeding.
This topic is not meant to discuss that subject.

Many articles have discussed that matter and many even tried different feeding methods.

Scientific articles have shown over and over the benefit of feeding live hatched brine shrimp, frequently with much better results than many other feeding strategies (or products).

My question is why so few of us reefers use this method??? I have even searched on R2R and found topics about feeding brine to fish, but why is it so overlooked for corals, while there are so many scientific articles on the subject???

I've been hatching brine shrimp every 3-4 days and have been feeding my corals for some weeks, but that's far from long enough to tell my personal view of it, but I'm interested to know who else have tried this...

Attached goes one of these amazing studies, but there are many others...

I think either people do not want to devote the extra time into doing it or they don't have a good method down/hatchery that works for them. One of the coolest ways I've seen feeding done for coral for live food is taking the top portion of a water bottle with the lid and using it as a dome over the coral. You can unscrew the lid and the put the live food in and the coral can eat it over time without fish getting it all or the current taking it away. -Raven

 

[jgirardnrg]

This works REALLY well.

Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish

No Aeration, Heat, or Tubing Required! Brine Shrimp Direct's Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish is probably the easiest to use hatchery on the market today. The unique design keeps all the unhatched eggs and shells in the outer ring, while the hatched shrimp will seek out the light and swim to the open...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[Reef and Dive]

This works REALLY well.

Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish

No Aeration, Heat, or Tubing Required! Brine Shrimp Direct's Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish is probably the easiest to use hatchery on the market today. The unique design keeps all the unhatched eggs and shells in the outer ring, while the hatched shrimp will seek out the light and swim to the open...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

just another great option!

 

[AlgaeBarn]

This works REALLY well.

Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish

No Aeration, Heat, or Tubing Required! Brine Shrimp Direct's Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish is probably the easiest to use hatchery on the market today. The unique design keeps all the unhatched eggs and shells in the outer ring, while the hatched shrimp will seek out the light and swim to the open...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Definitely one of the coolest and simplest options!

 

[shred5]

I am a firm believer of feeding corals. I feed rotifiers, BBS, phyto and a bunch of powdered food and bacteria.
Rotifers are my favorite and easy to culture and multiply real fast and a re a perfect size for more corals.
I do like BBS for the more large polyp stuff like some gorgonia.

You can also buy decapsulated brine shrimp eggs and not worry about the shells.

I have been in hobby long enough and discussed this with many people like Eric Borneman and Ron Shimek.

Even if some corals can survive without food I feel real food is better. Zooxanthellae only produce glucose which is sugar. How would you feel if all you were fed was sugar.

Most corals eat even if we do not see it. Some feed on stuff as small as bacteria. Hard part is determining what a particular coral feeds on.

Corals can gain a lot of their nutrition from food. If a coral gets more nutrition from food in relies less on its brown Zooxanthellae making for a more colorful coral. Also people dump all this nitrate and phosphate in their tank because of corals loosing their color. Well they can also get these nutrients from the food. People used to feed their corals more in this hobby and we have got away from it because everyone is so afraid of a little algae. It has go to the point where our tanks are to sterile and corals are actually starving and being robbed of growth and color.

If corals are stronger they can fight off stuff like rtn, brownjelly and other diseases.
I some of us keep our tank to close to the edge and are so close to a crash. What we see is healthy does not always mean a corals is healthy.

I use something like this:

 

[jgirardnrg]

just another great option!

So simple...
I grab saltwater from my holding tank and fill to the line. Scoop of eggs and sprinkle around the outside. Scoop of Spirulina the same way. Pop the cover on and wait 24-36 hours.

To feed you can either suck them up in a pipette from the hole or scoop them out with the center basket. I get brine for 4-5 days before I dump it and start over. I have 2 of those so I can always have a hatch of fresh brine.

 

[Uncle99]

I feed baby brine once a week at night no flow for one hour.
About 4 hours before feeding, I feed the baby brine phyto with a few drops of Selcon and let them pack that on.

 

[xiaoxiy]

@hart24601 has been feeding his corals with baby brine shrimp and I plan on doing it too. Like you said, there are a lot of great studies on it which show improved growth and health of corals fed with BBS.

He and I just bought a big can of INVE Sep-Art for this exact purpose. With Sep-Art the cysts are coated with a ferrous material, so that egg cysts can be easily separated from Nauplii with a magnet. Hopefully this will make culturing/separating baby brine shrimp less of a hassle.

 

[shred5]

@hart24601 has been feeding his corals with baby brine shrimp and I plan on doing it too. Like you said, there are a lot of great studies on it which show improved growth and health of corals fed with BBS.

He and I just bought a big can of INVE Sep-Art for this exact purpose. With Sep-Art the cysts are coated with a ferrous material, so that egg cysts can be easily separated from Nauplii with a magnet. Hopefully that will make culturing/separating baby brine shrimp less of a hassle.

Just buy hatching decapsulated eggs.
Since they do not have to get out of a shell they are healthier.

Depends what the ferrous material is if it is a metal which I would assume it is it may not be good long term in a reef if some of it leaches in.

 

[xiaoxiy]

Just buy hatching decapsulated eggs.
Since they do not have to get out of a shell either they are healthier.

Depends what the ferrous material is if it is a metal is but it may not be good long term in a reef if some of it leaches in.

@hart24601 tried decaps and found them to be a hassle, both with hatch rate and storage.

These are manufactured by INVE Aquaculture and seem to have a really good track record at zoos and other institutions where they use tons of Artemia Nauplii. Moreover, these are way cheaper than decapsulated eggs. I got a 15oz can of dried cysts for $70 shipped through Artemia International, their US distributor. That's much cheaper per oz than even the BRS brine cysts.

Will keep everyone updated on how I like them.

 

[shred5]

@hart24601 tried decaps and found them to be a hassle, both with hatch rate and storage.

These are manufactured by INVE Aquaculture and seem to have a really good track record at zoos and other institutions where they use tons of Artemia Nauplii. Moreover, these are way cheaper than decapsulated eggs. I got a 15oz can of dried cysts for $70 shipped through Artemia International, their US distributor. That's much cheaper per oz than even the BRS brine cysts.

Will keep everyone updated on how I like them.

Are they using them for coral feeding?
Fish have no issues with most heavy metals to a extent but corals and invertebrates do not have much tolerance for some of them.
Really depends what that material is. Pure iron would not be bad.

 

[xiaoxiy]

Are they using them for coral feeding?
Fish have no issues with most heavy metals to a extent but corals and invertebrates do not have much tolerance for some of them.
Really depends what that material is. Pure iron would not be bad.

They're used a lot for Jellyfish. I doubt much of any contaminant would get into the display tank. Any magnetic particles remain behind with the cysts, and Nauplii get rinsed.

Ocean Nutrition sells a re-branded version. The technology is patented by INVE. https://www.amazonasmagazine.com/2020/10/16/ocean-nutrition-brings-sep-art-brine-shrimp-to-the-us/

Here's a old reefbuilder's article on the same cysts:

Hands on with Ocean Nutrition Sep-Art Artemia System | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Last summer we ran a story announcing Ocean Nutrition’s European pricing for their newly introduced Sep-Art line of Artemia (Brine Shrimp) cysts and supporting products. What we didn’t tell you then…

reefbuilders.com

EDIT: Here is the patent filing from INVE: https://patents.google.com/patent/EP2090160A1/en

A method according to any one of the claims 1 to 5, characterised in that said magnetic particles comprise a ferromagnetic, a ferrimagnetic or a paramagnetic material, the magnetic particles comprising preferably an oxide of one or more transition metals, in particular Fe2O3 (hematite or magnemite), MnO2 (manganese dioxide) or a ferrite, preferably Fe3O4 (magnetite).

 

[hart24601]

Having used them a while not I don’t think much if any coated cysts get past the magnet. It’s quite strong. If worried one could just repeat the process with the separated bbs for a double pass with the magnet.