Keeping Brine Shrimp alive

RisiganL.

RisiganL.

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Feb 24, 2010
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At my LFS, they sell live brine shrimp. I know that adult brine shrimp are not very nutritional, so I was wondering how I could keep them alive for a few days and gut load them.
 
RisiganL. said:
At my LFS, they sell live brine shrimp. I know that adult brine shrimp are not very nutritional, so I was wondering how I could keep them alive for a few days and gut load them.
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You don't know as much as you think you do if you think that adult BS don't have much nutritional value. As far as gut loading them the best way would be to add a bit of a HUFA supplement like Selcon to their water along with a bit of live marine phytoplankton, aka SW green water. Next best would be a preserved phyto product and then yeast or a fiely powdered flake food.
 
Best thing I found for keeping brine shrimp alive and thriving is to provide them a culture of infusoria. Place a jar of water on a window sill or under intense lighting with an old piece of lettuce until you get a good culture, add to the shrimp once or twice a day with a dropper.
 
There is commercial food available for brine shrimp (amazon.com).
I also think that the notion that adult brine shrimp has no nutritional value in bunk. When I feed (frozen) adult brine shrimp as a treat, my fish go after them in a feeding frenzy. So, maybe they're not the most nutritious food, but they sure are 'popular'.
 
Really sounds a bit much for brine. SubRosa, where has that come from people thinking that adult brine having almost no nutritional value. Did someone make that statement then everyone else ran with it.
 
If I were to guess, I'd say it came from the notion that baby brine shrimp are most nutritious when newly born due to their attached yolk sacks and older brine shrimp aren't as nutritious. From there it's easy to see people generalize adult brine shrimp from having less nutritiounal value to having none. Of course, I'm just hazarding a guess.
 
I got the idea about brine shrimp not having nutritional value from what Jumko just said. I had read that they are most nutritious as babies and then lose nutritionally. What about the container the brine shrimp are in. Should I have an airstone or anything?
 
Depending on what one likes to argue about, there are several variations on the nutritional value of brine shrimp. Unfortunately the discussions never argue about the same set of circumstances so there really can't be a settled case. This isn't like arguing about which apple is best, its more like which pome is best. (The best-known example of a pome is the apple. Other examples of plants that produce fruit classified as a pome are cotoneaster, hawthorn, loquat, medlar, pear, pyracantha, toyon, quince,[2] rowan, and whitebeam.) <--Wikipedia.

Here is one Ph.Ds discussion. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/1/inverts#section-0
Here is the analysis page from Brine Shrimp Direct http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/Do-you-have-any-analysis-information-on-brine-shrimp-c118.html

My view is why not have it all ways?
You can purchase de-encapsulated shrimp eggs.
You can hatch your own baby brine. It's a pain to get it right at first but easy after a few successful batches.
You can hatch and try to gut load you own baby brine with Selcon. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=selcon&x=0&y=0
Or...
Golden Pearls is a man made food that works very well in feeding fry.
Cyclops Eeze is another man made food that comes in a variey of sizes.
 
How much salt should I have if I am going to keep the Brine shrimp? Like X tablespoons per gallon.
 
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