RECYCLED MATERIALS AT WORK
CONTAINERS AT REST BEFORE SIPHONING AND CHANGING WATER
CONTAINER OF RECYCLING WATER WITH BIO-BALLS MEDIA
BRINE SHRIMP IN 5 gal BOTTLE
PLASTIC 5G WATER BOTTLES.
26g Garbage containers for Brine Rearing.
SPIRULIN BALL
To date, I haven't found a simple way to raise Brine Shrimp in dense growing conditions, although I've seen many postings claiming to have simple methods that work. Low density growing is fairly I used to recycle my brine shrimp water in garbage cans with bio-balls, but now just mix my own home made salt water. I use a styrofoam container (LFS fish shipping cont.) as a water bath, heated with a 75 watt heater and circulated using an air supply. In the bath I've placed three 2 litre inverted pop bottles (bottom cut off) and four 1 gallon jars tilted to allow a low point. 3/16" rigid air line tubing connected to the regular air line tubing is best to aerate the containers. To start, I place 1/4 teaspoon of sterilized brine cysts (30 minutes soaked in 1 gal water with 17ml of 5% bleach) in each 2 litre container, letting it sit that way for 1 to 1 1/2 hours to hydrate before adding the rigid air line for VIGOROUS circulation. (Soak time stops the cysts from being raised above the water line as much, where they don't hatch) Use only an open ended airline. DO NOT USE AIR STONES as small bubbles will kill the brine shrimp. After 2 days, I let the container sit for a few hours and the unhatched cysts sink to the bottom and the empty cysts raise to the top. I siphon off the hatched nauplii from in between the cysts, filter the shrimp out with the shrimp net, and place them in the container of new water to start the feeding and growing cycle. I THROW OUT THE CONTAMINATED HATCHING WATER. After another 3 to 4 days, (doesn't have to be exact but watch for water deterioration) I change the water again and move the shrimp to the one gallon containers and start new cultures in the 2L containers. Once in the gallon containers, I change the water twice a week. After a week growing in the one gallon jugs, I would add the brine shrimp to one of the 5 gallon grow out containers if there is room, or, return them to the one gallon grow out container if not. This 5 gallon grow out is a water bottle, inverted, with the bottom cut out, and a ball valve plumbed into the mouth of the bottle. I change the water now in these containers about every three or four days depending on how heavy I feed. I "had" progressed to weekly water changes. The secret to these prolonged water change periods seemed to be the very light feedings, as opposed to the heavier ones I was led to believe was necessary. I barely coloured the water with what ever food I was using, and fed twice daily.
However, Unhappy with the yields I experienced, I have now returned to doing water changes about every four days unless something indicates a problem at an earlier point. To decap the cysts, I put 2 cups of water in an inverted pop bottle and add a tablespoon of cysts and let sit for about 1/2 hour. I then aerate it for an hour. This hydrates the cysts to be able to decap them.
I now add 1.2 cup of standard bleech with no perfumes or additives, and aerate for 7 minutes. (use a timer) I then IMMEDIATELY stop aeration and rinse the cysts under the cold water tap in the laundry room for a MINIMUM of four minutes to stop the bleaching process from killing the naupli in the cyst. For feeding the shrimp, I used to use spirulina flake which I crushed up in it's bag, and placed some in the center of a piece of densely woven cloth, folding the edges up and securing with an elastic. The resultant spirulina "ball" that was formed I then soaked in the fridge in a mug of salt water. For feeding, I placed the spirulina ball in a grow out container and "massaged" the ball gently to "fog" the water lightly. This method allowed only fine particles through the cloth, providing a finer particle size than I could get with using a blender. As mentioned previously, lighter, multiple feedings will work best. This method worked great for lower density growing, but I looked for a simpler feeding method and began using "pastes". Brine Shrimp Direct's Tahitian Blend worked out to be very simple and convenient and I used this for a long time until I decided to try live phytoplankton. Using ReefCrew's nannochloropsis as a starter culture, I grow live phyto to feed the brine.
It can be grown quite easy in pop bottles, gallon containers, or as I now do it, in 5g salt pails. After the brine shrimp have reached mid size, I then switch to using Tahitian Blend cryopaste for feeding as I haven't enough live phyto to feed them for all stages of growth at this time. It would definitely be cheaper if I could though. Once the shrimp have reached adult size, (about 4 weeks depending on density of the cutlture) I use a regular fish net to remove some adult brine shrimp and rinse them in fresh water before placing them in the "gut loading container". (2 litre ice cream bucket) I leave the shrimp in this Selco feeding container for a minimum of 1 1/2 hours, before feeding them to my fish.(young brine need a minimum of 24 hours to gut load, preferably in two 12 hour stints where the water and food is changed for the 2nd stage) Using a regular fish net to catch the adults, leaves the young live born (or added nauplii) to remain and grow themselves to be adults, as most of these smaller nauplii pass through the net. Adult shrimp produce live born young when conditions are right, and produce resting cysts when conditions deteriorate. If you find you are using more than what self propagation provides, you can either add another container to your process or just decapp and hatch out more cysts. I tried using a product called ClorAm-X to nullify the effects of ammonia in the rearing containers but it turns out, I've found, that brine shrimp are reasonably tolerant of the higher ammonia levels in their water. I do water changes sooner if the water goes brownish. If you find an easier, proven way to grow adult brine shrimp,(in dense cultures here in the Northern Hemisphere) that is) I would appreciate hearing about it. (Thanks)
BECAUSE THERE SEEMS TO BE SOME CONFUSION ON JUST HOW MUCH TO AERATE THE BRINE SHIMP WATER, I'M ADDING THIS NOTE TO SAY, YOU CAN AERATE TOO MUCH AND YOU CAN AERATE TOO LITTLE. It takes some practice to get so that there is enough circulation to oxygenate the water, and yet not be too heavy to blow the adult brine shrimp apart.
Even after all these years, I still occasionally crash a container by not enough aeration, or, kill the shrimp off by having too much. ____________________________________________________________________________________ I no longer recycle the water and instead make my own homemade salt water.
I have gone cheaper and mix up 10 parts by weight of Crystal Plus water softener salt and add one part of epsom salts, and dilute to a specific gravity of 1.017. I think that's basically all I've changed but if I think of any more, I'll alter this at a later date. rayjay
Some links for reading:
Tank Produced Brine
Northeast Brine Shrimp
EDIT: I now decap my cysts, a tablespoon at a time, hatch out in a 2L pop bottle and the next day separate the live brine and add them to a 26g container for grow out.
I use nannochloropsis for food for the first two weeks or so and then switch to Algagmac Protein Plus for the duration. This allows me to have an already gut loaded product to feed to my fish/seahorses.