Great tutorial, Yellowpebble! Totally stopped me from freaking out when I first found eggs!
No offence, Smokey, but I'd just use table salt, it's much cheaper - as long as it's not iodised! Also, thanks for the heads-up about the net, Auntiejude! I've been turkey bastering my BBS and poop out by hand >.< It takes forever, and I always miss a bit!
Also, another breeder gave me a great tip for sieving out BBS - I use a clean J-Cloth (those blue and white cloths used for cleaning) and just turkey baster squirts of the water through it to catch the BBS. I also sieve tap water through it when I clean them.
I also found a way to use fewer eggs, although it may not be ideal. When I harvest my BBS, I take out and rinse all the BBS I can see, feed my babies, then I pour the entire hatchery's water through the J-Cloth. I hang on to unhatched eggs and put 100% fresh warm tap water in and mix with half a teaspoon of salt (I was using smaller bottles). I then just take the J Cloth and scrunch it so that it fits perfectly into the bottle, releasing all the eggs stored on it with minimum fuss. This means I am water changing the hatchery 100% every two days, which seems to increase my hatch rate. BBS seem surprisingly fussy about their water! Ooh, I also found, when using your turkey baster to squirt out BBS, be sure to take it apart and rinse thoroughly with warm tap water if you plan to use it to feed your babies or your other axolotls.
My hatchery is just half a small bottle with an airtube bubbling through it, pegged to the side and at the entrance to the air pump for fewer bubbles. I have two of these and they work quite well!
Dear Harvey, are you talking about brine shrimp for adult axolotls? Generally speaking, I have heard of keepers using brine shrimp as 'treats' and supplements for their amphibians, but personally I think it's better to feed much heartier foods like earthworms as staples for axolotls. Brine shrimp are generally used as food for newly hatched babies because they rely on the snap reflex when first hatched, and baby brine shrimp are small enough and wiggly enough to be snapped up when they are itty bitty!
That's not to say you couldn't raise brine shrimp, but since they're being used as treats you might need to feed lots to get them to fill your axolotls up, not to mention you'd have to clean them, since brine shrimp are saltwater and axolotls live in freshwater. Some owners do raise brine shrimp for their own sake. You could always try it and see how it works for you.
You should only really feed BBS to your lottles in the first 24 hours they (the bbs) have hatched as they lose a lot of nutrients after this time.
