Question: Brine Shrimp Hatchery??

laalflaach

laalflaach

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Hi, just wondered if anyone else has had similar problems to me with their brine shrimp hatchery. I bought some eggs with a 93% hatch rate. The first batch took 3 days to hatch and wasnt a very big haul, the second lot died and the third batch that I am doing now still hasnt hatched after a day.

I know that temperature probably has a lot to do with it, and unfortunately here in the uk after having a minor heat wave recently, it is now very cold here, so as I didnt have a lamp I used a bain marie system, heating water for the glass jars to stand in, but think I may have fried the 2nd batch accidentally. I watched a tutorial last night on youtube, on how to raise a batch using a lamp as a heat and light source, and an upturned plastic bottle.

I bought a lamp today, unfortunately here in the uk, we have to use energy saving light bulbs which dont produce any heat, on a good note I managed to find an old style bulb to produce some heat and I am awaiting a result soon, hopefully.

So I have the batch I started last night, with no results as yet, and a new batch started this evening, I am finding though that the two bottle method is quite difficult to keep the pressure from the air pump level in both bottles, it fluctuates dramatically if you move anything, so I have air hoses strapped to chop sticks to keep them rigid, and a clamp to reduce the flow from one of the hoses to raise the flow in the other, both held above the top of the bottle with a peg to keep them level.

And then trying to turkey baste the shrimp out into a piece of kitchen towel without losing them?? Help??

This is so much more difficult compared to daphnia. Ahhhh!!!!

Any advice please?? :eek:
 
what is your setup? did you have an air pump with them? did you add salt? if you didn't/don't have a air pump did you do daily water changes? brine shrimp produce a lot of amnomnia and you have to do daily water changes if you don't have a iar pump.
I personly never have had problems with hatching brine shrimp.
If you have any more qustions just ask.
I will try and give you good advice on brine shrimp.
Sam:happy:
 
I added the recommended amount of rock salt and recommended amount of epsom salts. Yes I am using an air pump. I will try and take a photo of the set up tomorrow, but think I will try and get some daphnia as a backup again. At least they can stay in the tubs with the larvae for longer. Thanks for your imput. ; )
 
I don't worry about temperature for mine, and they seem to hatch after around 36 hours so I have to use 2 bottles and rotate their use.

I use rock salt (couldn't be bothered to spend the money on proper marine salt). I use 1 pint of water, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of eggs and it gives enough for my babbies.

My other half made my hatchers for me, he put a valve in the bottom to get the shrimp out. The easiest way I found was to strain them through a tea strainer that's lined with the blue and white checked all purpose cloth things. I still get a few eggs that don't hatch, so once I've rinsed what is on the cloth with bottled water, I swish it through a small tupperware box with more bottled water in. Then I leave a torch at one end of the container and after about 10 mins just pipette what's hanging around in the light. It's a bit time consuming but it's worked so far :)
 
I did exactly what your descibing and it worked for me. Bottle, lamp, air line etc hanging the bottles in transparent carrier bags. I used marine salt but it did get expensive so won't be doing that again. I used a couple of valves to balance the air but after a while I gave up on running two at a time. I just harvested half of the newly hatched by draining off some water and then topping up with water and eggs. I had some bad runs and some good runs but i did have a daphnia stock as back up (but they soon munched there way through them). Most eggs you can buy are decapsulated so I dont think you have to worry about unhatched eggs too much. Im guessing you are dechlorinating your water somehow...
Best of luck
 
Im not declorinating the water, non of the tutorials told me to do that and by the time the eggs hatch over 24 hours later I figure the chlorine will have bubbled out ages before??

On a brighter note last night I noticed some movement in my bottle, and wow, almost all had hatched, so the waiting was definitely worth it but I feel I have aged dramatically while waiting.

This couldnt have happened at a better time, as my local pet shop still hasnt got the brine shrimp eggs I asked for 2 weeks ago, and doesnt do live food. The fish pet shop in the next town, 10 miles away, has stopped selling live food and says it could be a month before they get any more in, and the only other shop is 40 miles away. So looks like Im going to have to persevere.

I dont know if anyone else thinks this, but if a batch isnt ready in time, does it really matter if the larvae have a delay in feeding?? I am sure nature doesnt provide swarms of brine shrimp on a 12 hourly basis in the wild, does it?? If a batch isnt ready I cant feed them can I. Especially if they wont eat anything that does not move.

This is so nerve wracking, but for everything that is going wrong, a solution is popping up so I think an axolotl fairy godmother is watching over all of us.
 
I think the problem is your not useing deloranated water, there isn't just chlorine in the tap water there is also chloramine and probably other chemicals in the tap water.
try hatching some brine shrimp in water that has been treated with dechlorninater.
any more qustions just ask.
Sam:happy:
 
the link hasn't been hiperlinked
 
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Anyway the pic is in my photo album on here.. check it out!!
 
And just to let everyone know, it worked!! Got another batch today, and another one on the go, and still using the one from yesterday... phew, so many shrimps!! Got some yeast for them today to feed them, so any that arent used can go into a larger tank to be grown on for my husbands fish to eat.

The secret seems to be the heat, did a test, without the lamp heat the water temperature was 12 degrees, and with the lamp heat it was 18 degrees, so it is very important to have the lamp, just hope this old style bulb lasts, as they are now obsolete in the uk.

The lamp I used is available from argos for £3.49 without the bulb, good value for money though!!
 
did you use dechlrinated water?
well done on the brine shrimp I use a lamp as well:happy:
 
No I didnt, but by the time they hatch the chlorine has already dissipated. And Ive just changed the bain marie base from water to gravel to make it more sturdy, in case the cat knocks it. Thanks for your help! ; )
 
Only problem I have at the minute is that the bulbs keep blowing, no idea why but it is really holding things up, I am now reduced to using a tiny 25 watt pygmy bulb, literally no heat produced but its all I got at the mo. The heat from the bulbs actually melted the plastic shade too! Think Ill have to rethink my setup and buy a metal lamp. All I need now is a stack of old type bulbs if I can find any anywhere.
 
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