breeding brine shrimp

[Din Gior]

I'm doing this every other day. I'm using cola bottle, heater and small air pump.

[tt101]

how long does it take for your shrimp to hatch? and why do you have a heater, is it necassary?

[Din Gior]

Originally Posted by tt101

how long does it take for your shrimp to hatch? and why do you have a heater, is it necassary?

24-36h. heater speed up the process. I'm using aquarium water with one cup of fresh water.

[tt101]

thanks guys, can't wait to get my mandarin and try it out!!!!

[freezetyle]

you may want to do some reading on brine shrimp enrichment as well. There are a few products out there that can help with that. I've used selcon and the new era brine shrimp enrichment.

[reefgirl189]

I used to breed brine shrimp for my baby angelfish and other FW fish.

I got a little 5 gallon aquarium with one of those cheap little aquaclear filters with a dark drop cloth overtop.

Hatched WAY to many on the first try and ended up not needing 90% of them.

You can buy the kits or just the eggs from your LFS

[rayjay]

First of all, not all mandarins will eat brine shrimp. Most that do only eat the newly hatched brine.
Also, most people hatch bbs, they don't breed them as they have to become adults before they produce liveborn.
For the mandarins, the bbs should be ongrown for about 24 hours after hatchout, and then enriched for two 12 hour stages with new water and enrichment for the second 12 hours stage.
While adult brine can be enriched in a matter of about 4 hours, bbs take a full day for the maximum enrichment, 12 hours for just gut loaded.
It's also safer for the mandarin to decapp or at least sterilize the cysts before hatching as they are known carriers of nasty bacteria.
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/Hatcher.html
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/brineshrimp.html
When you buy cysts, make sure they have been stored in refrigeration and not kept on shelves or hooks. The quality degrades quickly the longer they are out of refrigeration and is a big reason some people have in failed or poor rates of hatch.

[mike31154]

Haven't raised any in a while, but when I did, I simply used a small pop bottle with the bottom cut off. I suspended this upside down right in my display & hooked an air pump to it. Attached to the rim with a clamp, bottle cap had a plastic air line elbow through it for the air. Used a turkey baster to fill it with tank water. When the BS hatched, the cysts would sink to the bottom into the rim of the cap. Once hatched, all I did was use a baster & sucked up the critters to feed to the tank. Pull the bottle, dump it, rinse, repeat as desired.

Using this method, I didn't have to mix up any water or use a heater. Downside is, the bottle can be a bit unsightly hanging inside the display. If you have a sump, your one step ahead.