Brine Shrimp--keeping them alive

[miriam]

Last night I set up a brine shrimp hatchery in the manner suggested on this page: http://www.indiana.edu/~axolotl/axolotls/shortguide/shrimphatchery.html

I think many of the brine shrimp have hatched already, but I'd like to wait for more of them to hatch and for them to get a tiny bit bigger before I harvest them so my axolotl can see them more easily.

Question: is leaving the hatched brine shrimp in the hatchery setup with the bubbler on the best way to keep them alive? Or should I turn it off? Is there something else I should be doing?

I would assume it is, but the reason I ask is that someone gave me some newly hatched brine shrimp on Sunday (as a favor, because I hadn't started my own yet). I fed some to my axolotl and left the rest in the jar they were in with an airstone, but most of them were dead 24 hours later. I can't figure out why.

I'd like to make sure whatever brine shrimp I don't feed to my axolotl right away at least stay alive for as long as brine shrimp CAN stay alive without getting fed...both so that I can possibly use them for the next days' feeding and also to keep them alive long enough to share them with a friend who is also raising some axolotls.

 

[jeff]

Was the water in the jar salt water? Brine shrimp will only live in fresh water for about 24 hours, then they'll begin to die.

 

[miriam]

I assume it was salt water...I wasn't watching carefully, but I think the man who gave them to me just took some of the brine shrimp + water out of the container he was hatching them in, and that would have been salt water.

If they're already hatched and the water's salty, is it better to have a bubbler in there with them or not?

 

[michael]

They don't live long. I hatch fresh every day. If I have extra I strain them and freeze in fresh water for emergency.

 

[miriam]

I'm feeding a baby axolotl whose sense of smell isn't good enough to find non-live food...
I'm trying to figure out if I can get away with hatching every other day. I think I may try keeping some in the refrigerator and see if that slows their growth after hatching so I can keep them an extra day.

 

[michael]

Do you only have 1 baby axolotl? They will eat frozen baby brine in a pinch. How big is the axolotl? Maybe frozen blood worms or live black worms would be a good alternative. Of course you could go with live daphnia.

 

[miriam]

I had some frozen brine shrimp...he didn't really eat them. He's about 1.5 cm right now.

I think I'm just going to try to keep up with the brine shrimp, or maybe work something out with my friend (who has many more babies--we both got them from our biology lab).

How complicated is culturing daphnia compared to hatching brine shrimp? I was looking for live daphnia and was told that they're not available around here and the only way to get 'em is to order them online and culture them yourself.

 

[ButtercupSaiyan]

Was the water in the jar salt water? Brine shrimp will only live in fresh water for about 24 hours, then they'll begin to die.

OH. I think I just created a topic and you just answered it ... but I'll leave it up anyway.