Hatching BBS with aquarium and air stones

[daniellog]

Hey,

Just wondered if anyone has hatched baby brine shrimp in a aquarium rather than the old bottle method? Is it easy to do?
The reason I ask is I don't have any ridgid tubing so I have to cut holes at the bottom of the bottles and often they leak and one toppled over in the night (yay).

 

[Jennewt]

The problem with an aquarium is that the eggs will settle to the bottom and not be agitated.

To solve the toppling problem, place the bottle inside a larger container that holds it upright. You could use a small aquarium (padded with something to hold the bottle securely) or a 1-gallon jug right-side-up with the top cut off, or something like that. You can use foam or styrofoam or wadded paper to make a "nest" that holds the inverted bottle fairly securely. Or glue the bottlecap onto a piece of flat wood. Illustrated here:
Caudata Culture Articles - Microfoods

To solve the lack of rigid tubing, find a small object that will wedge the soft tubing into place in the bottom of the bottle. This could be other pieces of tubing, or a piece of cork, or a pen cap, or whatever you can find that is the right size to hold the tubing fairly firmly in the bottom.

 

[daniellog]

Thanks for the info, decided to keep the bottle way although when I got home the other had toppled over too. Got some large paper clips to hold the pipes in place.

 

[cathy]

Last year I used and old fish tank filled with water and heater on, then a piece of styrofoam cut to size with 3 holes in it, bottles with bottoms cut off and turned upside down and placed in the holes, air tubes placed in each bottle held in place with bulldog clip, this worked well. I'd set brine shrimp eggs up in one bottle then the next day set up the next and so on, good luck.

I am about to set mine up again as I have just aquired some eggs, wish me luck.....

 

[jeangenie149]

To hatch my BBS I use two 2 litre lemonade bottles. Cut the off the bottom section( about 8 ) inches and put some clean stones in the bottom to weigh it down. The other bottle, cut off about 4 inches from the bottom of the bottle. Make sure the cap it tight and place upside down in the section that has the stones. I place this in an old fish tank filled with water. I use a heater and secure the airline on the top edge of the bottle with a clothes peg, so the airstone is inside the bottle. I find it works for me.

 

[daniellog]

Its not hard to do the bottle method, if you go on youtube and search for brine shrimp hatchery then you will get some good guides on how to do it. Personally I think this one is the best...
YouTube - Tutorial: Brine Shrimp Hatchery

 

[Mac Myers]

That's pretty cool. I thought you had to separate the baby brine shrimp from the salty water?

 

[floosy]

Yes, you do have to separate them, and I was initially doing it your way with the airline clipped in, then siphoning bbs from the bottom of the bottle, but I was getting too many egg cases in the shrimp. I now use the airline through the cap method, and my hubby drilled the holes just a bit small so the airline is jammed in. I have seen that you can use silicone or blu-tac - putty would work as well, to block any gaps in the lid. the best thing is that you just undo the airline from the pump, hold the bottle in the other hand and lower the airline so you get those nice juicy red bbs from the bottom of the bottle. then just put the bottle back and hook it up again. I strain my bbs through an old coffee dripolator - the one with the plastic or nylon mesh filter. works great, as then I just dunk that in some clean treated water to wash the bbs out, then feed the little suckers. I figured if coffee filter paper wuld work, why not that? I get the feeding done in about three minutes flat, plus leaving the bottle to sit for 5 minutes or so first to let the egg cases float.

By the way, at Underwater World on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, they use bbs to feed sick fish. They have two HUGE setups, but instead of using coke bottles they use 44 gallon plastic drums with downlights above and airstones in the bottom, directing the water to flow in a circular motion. You can imagine how many bbs are in there. It is awesome to see.

Good Luck

 

[melfly]

I use a one litre bottle, chuck salt, water and eggs in it. Put tube in bottle and turn on Ta-da!
To rinse i pour into a 3 litre tub wait for the bbs to swim to the corners and suck em up with a turkey baster, into clean water then into baby tub.

Mel