They're Hatching!!!

[swimupstream]

Yippee!!! Finally... it's been a long, anxious 3 weeks, but they started hatching today (while I was watching, which was so cool...) I reckon they were waiting till I had everything ready for them!

Only 3 out that I can see, but the rocks are pretty slimy and they're good at hiding.

I'm trying to hatch my first batch of brine shrimp eggs - do I just put the food straight in the egg tank, or should I start taking the babies out and feed them in their new tanks? I don't want to shock them with the difference in the water (don't know if this could be a problem), and I can see they'll be hard to catch, as they're not great swimmers yet! Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Gonna try to get some sleep now, but it's pretty damn exciting

[Chris]

we DEMAND pictures!

[Miss]

YaY babies.... Cant wait to see them all.

[Caitie]

Firstly, CONGRATULATIONS!!! I didn't hatch my babies, but I'm currently taking care of 10 larvae (four of whom will be staying with me as long as they don't cark it...), but I thought I could offer my method for water changes. What I do is keep 2L containers (One old apple juice bottle and one old flour jar), dechlorinate it, let it sit in the room for a few hours, then dip test (stick your *clean* finger in one for 20 seconds, dip it in the next, and if you feel a difference, wait a little longer). Then fill a Chinese takeaway container halfway, transfer the larvae across, check you've got them all, check again, then toss the old water. Whilst you're doing that, feed them (I do blackworms at the moment, so I don't worry about not getting them in the usual living quarters, but from what I've read from everyone else about BBS, you don't want them creating a mucky mess...), wait until the babies have stopped eating and scoop them home. Repeat as necessary.
Now... where are the pics???

[brtnykys]

Pics pics pics please! show us your little squirmy babies!

[swimupstream]

The cheeky li'l devils are hiding in the rocks and only briefly wiggle up into the water, then drift down again... they're really hard to catch with my slow camera!

I want to move the few that have hatched to some new clear tanks so I can know for sure they're eating and get some good pics, but it's tricky. This tank they were laid in has lots of large pebbles as the base, and they're pretty piled up and gunky, and still covered in unhatched eggs, so I don't want to move them trying to catch the babies - firstly it'll dirty up the water, and I might squash some...

So I guess I'll be feeding them in there until they're swimming around more and a little easier to catch. Next time round, I'll be wiser about the setup with mum and dad

OMG I wish these brine shrimp would get a move on! I've put them in my warmest room now, with a light overhead, hoping it'll speed things up... is there anything else I can feed them if the BBS don't hatch?

It's so great to get all these responses - I've learned so much from you all, I can't imagine doing this without you

[Aimée]

SO LUCKY!!! I'm still waiting for mine to hatch.. it will be 3 weeks tomorrow.. so slow! In regards to feeding, I've got 8 chinese containers ready for mine to go into. Plan to add BBS, wait 2 hours or so, then change the water and put them back in their containers.

I'm also still waiting on my BBS. Started the first hatchery last night and still waiting.. my place is pretty cold right now though, with being the middle of winter and all.. :)