Hatching Brine Shrimp

[Heather at HMSG]

Hi - just been browsing this section of the forum.
I am puzzled by the comments that hatching live brine shrimp is too complicated or too time consuming.
I have recently made up two 'hatcheries' from pop bottles, as per instructions found via this forum, & they work fine, & were very simple to make (although I resorted to clothes pegs to keep the piping in place, as silicon glue failed!)

However, I am also trialing the 'jam-jar method'!:
Small jam jar
Brine (made with redsea sea salt from aquarium shop)
Pinch of eggs (bought from 'Blades' - UK)
Mantlepiece (randomly warm above woodburner - any radiator would do I guess - 28degC ideal, but wider temp. range also works)
3ml plastic pipette (to catch)

This works fine!

I am only rearing a dozen or so axies, and for these few I wonder why I needed the double hatchery with bubbles, but guess the bubbles would be needed for larger concentration of brine shrimp eggs in a small space.

Anyway - it can be so simple.

I do have the advantage of a bottomless supply of 3ml plastic pipettes (like miniture turkey basters). These can be purchased from laboratory suppliers in large quantities, & cost next to nothing each. (Perhaps someone should buy a box full & sell them on for a few pence plus cost of postage?) I would be really stuck without these.

Just my two-peneth, as a fairly new enthusiast.

Season's Greetings

Sparkle & Heather

 

[Jake]

I am puzzled by the comments that hatching live brine shrimp is too complicated or too time consuming.
I have recently made up two 'hatcheries' from pop bottles, as per instructions found via this forum, & they work fine, & were very simple to make

You're absolutely right, Heather! Brineshrimp hatcheries are extremely easy to make. I've noticed people (especially axolotl addicts) have a tendency to make simple tasks (or thoughts) out to be very complicated, if not impossible. Truth is, for only a dozen axolotl larvae, you can just put some mildy salty water with a small pinch of brineshrimp eggs in a 9 inch wide pie-pan and leave them set over night to hatch! ...Now, someone will probably come along and say that's too difficult for them!

 

[blueberlin]

What I have noticed is that the most common cause of problems with the BS hatchery is the quality of the eggs. At least here in Germany, it is common to get dud eggs that simply will not hatch, or have only a low hatch rate. Eggs from a qualitatively reliable source, though, have a high yield rate and are indeed easy to hatch.

-Eva

 

[oceanblue]

I got stuck with one small but interesting coloured axolotl which refused to move on from brine shrimp after all its siblings were scoffing chopped worm. I used scaled down pie dishes, plastic petri dishes (the wrong way up!), on a shelf at the back of the Aga. Tiny pinches of eggs and no aeration.

I'm one of those people who weigh and measure and try out numerous complicated variations!

If you make up your brine in bulk at 8g salt per litre not only do they hatch well, you can pipette them across to the same solution and keep them alive in the fridge for over 2 weeks and pipette them from there into the water with the axolotls without risking salt overload. In the fridge the brine shrimp stop swimming, but they wake up as soon as they warm up a bit.

Hardly any wastage and no filtering!

 

[Niall W]

I am thinking of culturing some of my own brine shrimp for my tropical fish in the other tank (and possibly have some eggs at end incase i end up with a breeding pair of axies at some point).

So is no food for the brine shrimp needed?

 

[pent565]

no feeding the brine shrimp; by the time they need to eat, they have lost much of their nutritional value anyway.