brine shrimmp

[thesoul2008]

sorry don't know if i have this question in the right area but anyway all i want to know is with brine shrimp to get them to hatch and bread what is the salt to water mixture i need?

also what do you think i should be feeding them as they are in a new tank all by themselves do i just throw a heap of fish frenzy in there let it float to the bottom and start some alge for them to eat or should i get something more specific?

 

[Notophthalmus]

About one tablespoon of salt per quart or liter is good; you also need high pH water, so if your water is neutral or acidic, you may need to add some baking soda. Here's a pretty good article with instructions for hatching and for building a hatchery:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_brineshrimp_hatchery.php

If you just want to hatch the shrimp out and feed them to your fish, you don't need to feed them. If you want to raise them to adult size and get them to breed, yeast is a good food.

 

[thesoul2008]

i was just reading an article that says if i let the tank get some sun to get algae they will eat that so i don't need to feed them does this sound right???

 

[Notophthalmus]

That might happen, but I wouldn't rely on it. Most algaes that are likely to blow into the tank probably wouldn't survive in such salty water. You could try setting up a jar of water with the proper water parameters and putting it in the window to see what happens, though.

 

[thesoul2008]

i actually got a small tank for free i was hoping to breed them well try anyway save me buying them all the time and they cant get the eggs here at the fish store so if i can successfully breed them i will get a bigger tank and sell the eggs to the store here (i am in the middle of nowhere and its not a fish store its a pet shop with 5 or 6 tanks i get most my fish online) i am sure everyone here would LOVE being able to get them from here instead of ordering them all the time

 

[thesoul2008]

if anyone has some information on the best way to get these guys to bread successfully it would be greatly appreciated i can find heaps of how to hatch them but i would like to know how to get them to lay eggs and the best way to get the eggs out of the tank and where to store them

 

[Notophthalmus]

If you want usable quantities of eggs, you're going to need more than a small tank; a bunch of ponds or big stock tanks would probably be necessary. You and your fish-keeping neighbors might be better off to go in together on a very large order of eggs.

Amphipods (AKA sideswimmers or scuds) might be a better substitute for brine shrimp; both saltwater and freshwater amphipods exist in Australia, and they are pretty easy to take care of. Just give them food and they'll breed on their own. You can't conveniently store their eggs like you can brine shrimp, but it's very easy to maintain a colony; they practically thrive on neglect. They are similar in size to adult brine shrimp. Daphnia and other microcrustaceans are similar in size to freshly-hatched brine shrimp and are also easy to breed and should be available locally.

 

[thesoul2008]

lol well that maybe an idea for the future at the moment i just want to see IF i can breed then and if i can get a few batches successfully then i will gradually get bigger about all i can get here at the pet shop is fish food pumps tanks goldfish and guppies HAHAHA oh and air pumps VERY small isolated town 14 hours from any major city population about 20,000

 

[thesoul2008]

ok so i have been reading and reading and reading and i think i have figured a way to do it

im going to paint a glass black put a small hole in the top for an airline and another small hole for light with a slide cover over it (to be opend later) i'm going to put it in the tank upside down so the hole and the airline will be at the bottom of the tank with ALL lights off then after 18 - 20 hours turn of the pump wait for 10 mins then carefully open the little trap door and turn on the light so all the brine swim out and all there eggs should be trying to float up so i wont get any in there tank then once there all out (i think) pull the glass out and i have shrimp in my tank (hopefully clean) anything left in the jar i will strain and will be food then hopefully they will breed in the tank so i can just keep pulling eggs out...... maybe i dont know if this will work as i have mixed and matched from a few different ideas anyone got any other ideas? or reasons why this wont work?