How to harvest brine shrimp

Molch

Molch

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I just hatched out my first-ever brine shrimp, so here come the questions: :eek:

- if some nauplii hatch after 24 hrs or so but others haven't, do I siphon out the hatched ones? Or do I wait a bit longer till everybody has hatched?

- after rinsing them etc and putting them in the larvae tank, how long before I should siphon off the uneaten ones? How long will they live in fresh water?

- also, how to separate the eggs from the nauplii? They are supposed to float, but well, many don't. How do I prevent them getting in with my larvae?

any input?
 
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What i do is when they are hatching i put them in margarine tubs still in in the saltwater. They will keep in the tubs for 2 days max, i then turn on the aquarium light and place the tubs in front of the light. The hatched brineshrimp gather in the corner of the tub nearest the light. I then put the end of a turkey baster and syphon up the hatched brineshrimp, this way keeps the unhatched eggs away from the hatched brineshrimp.

It also lets you start hatching a fresh batch of eggs in the hatcher. This way works well for me and i always have live brineshrimp when i want it. :happy:
Once the brineshrimp is fed to the larvae it only last hours in the fresh water, i feed my larvae 3 times a day, small amounts, so that the live brineshrimp is available to them most of the day. :happy:
 
I would wait a little longer until most of them have hatched. The egg shells should float, but it can be very difficult to separate them fully, which is why I'm now switching to daphnia haha! Let them settle for several minutes and siphon off the floating shells, then stir a bit and let it settle again and again remove as many floating shells as possible. Then shine a small flashlight(or other light source) towards the side of your container(in the middle is best to avoid shells and unhatched eggs). They should swim towards the light and then suck them up with a pipette.

I try to remove the uneaten food within a few hours as that is the point when the brine shrimp will start to die off and foul the water.
 
You can take out the hatched ones, put the water back in, and leave the hatchery running for another day or two. In the meantime start another one. If you have unhatched cysts in the bottom of the hatchery when its cycle is finished you can reuse them, some might still hatch. Regarding separation, unhatched cysts sink and shells float and in the middle should just be nauplii. They can be lured into a particlar spot with a flash light. But leave the water to settle first for 5-10 minutes. The brine shrimp can be left with the larvae for a couple of hours. Give them plenty of the bbs, they need to be surrounded by them to feed well.
 
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Thanks Eva!
Do you feed like this once a day? Or more often?
 
thanks all - say, how come Eva's response was the first to appear even though it is now the third posted? Just curious....the others came later but then appeared in front of Eva's - how does that work?
 
Mine said it required Mod approval(but I posted before Eva's post showed up) - not sure why as I've made many posts on here before, but not in this specific forum, so maybe that's why?
 
another question: I just put them in with the brine shrimp. Everybody is very excited and hopping around.

Can the brine shrimp be too dense? I mean, at some point, will they clog up the newts' gills or anything? There's just so...oh my..many of them!
 
There were no answers when I replied and then I couldn't see my own answer either... how bizarre.

If they're too dense then you might want to make a little less next time (the cysts are quite expensive here). I don't know if it can be detrimental for the larvae - I mean they don't exactly hunt...
I fed my larvae only once a day, left the BBS in their tubs for a couple of hours and then cleaned.
 
I believe after a certain number of posts and/or reputation, your posts are no longer sent to the moderators for approval. (hope this helps)
 
evut said:
If they're too dense then you might want to make a little less next time (the cysts are quite expensive here). I don't know if it can be detrimental for the larvae - I mean they don't exactly hunt...
I fed my larvae only once a day, left the BBS in their tubs for a couple of hours and then cleaned.
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If I may ask one more stupid question - how do you clean? After mine were done and all their little bellies stuffed orange, I found I had 20 fat larvae and, oh, 20 million dead brine shrimp in there. I found it a lot easier to hoover the larvae out into a fresh tank than try to clean up the brine shrimps. But then I worry that frequent moving will stress the larvae. I definitely used too many cysts, but as I am a brine shrimp virgin, this was my first time....

Is there an easier way to clean up after a brine shrimp orgy? Or is ir always necessary to remove the larvae afterwards?
 
I just hoovered the uneaten food with a turkey baster and replaced about 1/2 the water one day and transferred the larvae into a fresh container the next day (sometimes after 2 days).
 
Molch said:
If I may ask one more stupid question - how do you clean? After mine were done and all their little bellies stuffed orange, I found I had 20 fat larvae and, oh, 20 million dead brine shrimp in there. I found it a lot easier to hoover the larvae out into a fresh tank than try to clean up the brine shrimps. But then I worry that frequent moving will stress the larvae. I definitely used too many cysts, but as I am a brine shrimp virgin, this was my first time....

Is there an easier way to clean up after a brine shrimp orgy? Or is ir always necessary to remove the larvae afterwards?
Click to expand...

In my bare-bottom tanks, the gentle current from the filter tends to concentrate the dead brine shrimp in a small patch somewhere on the floor of the tank. I suck them up with a little mini-siphon that I made from some silicone airline connected to the empty plastic case of a ball-point pen and mounted with sticky tape to a long paintbrush handle to give me better reach with it, which gives me a high degree of precision when vacuuming around the larvae. Sometimes I'll suck up a larva by mistake, but they usually survive the trip along the airline, into the waste bucket and back to the tank via turkey-baster-express.
 
Hi, I use brine shrimp eggs without cyst, cleaner, easier and has a very good hatch rate.
A greeting.
 
hehe, thanks peter - that's pretty much what I ended up doing. I don't have a filter, but gave the tank water a little circular swirl which made all the dead shrimp collect in the middle, and then I hoovered them out via airline tube....
 
Kroak, I was also worried about the shells harming the larvae and started out with decapsulated eggs but they were just too expensive. I had hatcheries running for 6 months and the cost would have been crazy.
 
evut said:
Kroak, I was also worried about the shells harming the larvae and started out with decapsulated eggs but they were just too expensive. I had hatcheries running for 6 months and the cost would have been crazy.
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have you had any losses due to shell-eating?

I had one die after a brine shrimp feeding, but it was a spinner and was likely a goner anyways...
 
Tuve criaderos corriendo durante 6 meses y el costo habría sido una locura.
Click to expand...

I was also 6 months to hatch larvae and karelinii cyanurus, but when the larvae began to accept mosquito larvae, was alternating with other foods (chopped worms, daphnia, etc.) decapsulated artemia brand that I bought cost me 4 euros , Waterlife brand.
 
I bought this mark the seller cheated me to me, "I said to myself that this brine shrimp hatched mark. The problem with this brand is not moving, are hatched preserved.
 
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