Use a Brine Shrimp Hatchery or Use Frozen?

[tomm10]

I've been trying to vary the diet of my Zebra Danios with Omega One Flakes and frozen brine shrimp. The frozen shrimp are sort of a pain (breaking off a small enough piece is not easy) so I'm wondering if its appropriate for me to raise brine shrimp for feeders.

I saw a cheap, down and dirty shrimp hatchery at Petsmart and thought it would fit my bill but my question is, would it be overkill?
As my tank is cycling I only have 4 Danios. Once its cycled I'll only be adding three cories so I won't have too many mouths to feed with live shrimp.

-Will I be able to raise the shrimp in small enough quantities that I can keep from having to temporarily house shrimp somewhere? How long can they last in unfiltered, unaerated water?

-Would I be better off getting one of the hatcheries that use an air pump?

-should I just stick with the frozen shrimp?

 

[OrionGirl]

I'd stick with the frozen ones. The hatcheries are great if you have fry, or fish that won't take to prepared foods yet, but otherwise are a pain. When I had them, I had to have 2 10 gallon tanks--one to hatch them in, another to raise them up to a feeding size. The freshly hatched shrimp are tiny (about 1-2 mm), so adult fish seldom even notice them. For a smaller setup, you'd be better off getting a variety of frozen foods and mixing them up, IMO. Some come in cube form, and it's not too big a deal to thaw them in a small tupperware, then re-freeze the unused portion, or refridgerate it for 2-3 days.

 

[tomm10]

Thanks, Oriongirl. Sounds like I definitely don't want to get involved in raising shrimp. I hadn't even thought about letting small pieces of the shrimp thaw out in the fridge. That should work perfectly.

 

[ewok]

i buy my frozen ones in "buttons" they are small and look sort of like gumdrops. just pop it out and it defrosts in the tank.

another strange option..... just take the whole block and swirl it in the tank for a few seconds until some melt off and then stick it in a bag and refreeze it.