Brine shrimp...

stellablu

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Nov 10, 2004
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Port St. Lucie, FL
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I don't have the patience to raise them; however, how do I keep the bag full of brine shrimp alive that I buy from the LFS?

The *******s died within two days of opening the bag. My BB Goby will only eat live.

Can I use a small fishbowl/guppy tank along with an airstone?

What is a girl to do?
 
Brine shrimp are basicly non-nutricious--mostly water. I have much better sucess keeping blackworms alive, by keeping in a shallow bowl in the fridge, covered by 1/4" of water. I buy about a 1/2 cup at a time, so a Coolwhip bowl w/holes cut out of the top works for me. Make sure to rinse thoroughly in a brine shrimp net, before each feeding. Throw out any that look bad. I like to look at them before buying.
 
Pufferpunk said:
Brine shrimp are basicly non-nutricious--mostly water.


yah, definitely. Baby brine shrimp are your best shot, while they still have their yolk sac.
 
Brine shrimp can be kept nutritious by feeding them--not hard to keep them alive and well fed. I set up a 5 gallon tank with about 3-4 inches of water in it, and an air stone. You need to make it slightly brackish--about 1.010 at the high end, down to around 1.005--and make sure to mark the water level and add FW as it evaporates down. I fed mine green water, yeast, and the juice from thawed beefheart.
 
Sounds like a lot of work, when you can just stick some nice, juicy, red meaty worns in the fridge. I add liquid vitamens as they soak in there & away I go.
 
Yep, keeping the brine going is more work...More work than vinegar eels and micro worms, but they get bigger. I didn't have a nearby source for black worms, so they were more a treat, while the shrimp were a main source of food for a few fish that just wouldn't take anything but live food, and needed items bigger than the vinegar eels or micro worms that I raised for my killie fry.
 
I ordered a batch of live bloodworms, they'll be here next Thursday because the order was already put in for tomorrow. I checked 6 stores and no one had them on hand. Two offered to order them, so I took advantage of it.

The owner told me when I rinse the worms that blood will just wash off them. That's GROSS!!

He also said he'd give me a bit of larger brine shrimp if I wanted them...for free. If they aren't nutricious, should I get them as snacks anyway?
 
I dont know but, Brine Shrimp are the same things they use as "Sea Monkeys"
They dont need brackish watrer to live but they can survive in both, I used to have a batch, the sea monkey brine shrimp dont grow much larger than the eraser tip of a pencil, but if you buy the sea monkey shrimp, you have to hatch them from a powder, not live purchase, it takes them about 2 weeks to get to full size, and since there are several thousand in a batch, they actively reproduce, so you could keep a seperate little tank of them for unlimited supply, but they cant have the water filtered, they dont need filtered water to live, they could survive in a cup too. but since the water cant get filltered, in about a week the water gets really algea, I dont know if that helps you at all, I tried .
 
Not so much blood as 'juice'--it's water that has waste products in it. Not blood--pretty sure that would require some sort of health permit. The water needs to be replaced regularly or they start dying off (and smelling)--otherwise, a tub in the fridge will keep them going for quite a while.
 
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