Brine Shrimp

pleco_breeder · Post by **pleco_breeder** » Tue May 08, 2007 6:33 pm

Hello,

Just wanted to make a note from personal experience here. I've raised them in 35 gallon stock tanks a time or two when dealing with tetras/barbs that seem to do terribly for me when I don't keep hatchers going. Anyway, when working with small fry like that it's not difficult to stretch a grading mesh over a bowl and slowly stick the edge under the surface about 1/4 inch. This sucks the nauplii into the bowl where they can be strained through a brine net to be fed. This works better if you point a flashlight at the rim of the bowl for a few seconds before submerging it. The flashlight draws them right up against the edge before the suction drags them into the bowl.

On the most recent attempt, I made a small box from black acrylic and cut a hole in the side. This hole was covered with 250 micron mesh. On the far corner, I placed a standpipe covered with 150 micron mesh. Put a bend in the standpipe after it comes out of the bottom and wrap it up to the surface of the stock tank. Stick an airstone in the outside portion of pipe to create a bit of current and aim a clamplight inside the box every night after lights out. You have to clean it every 12 hours if you're only going to collect freshly hatched, but it's a lot easier than running hatchers all the time.

Larry Vires

shrimper Bob · Post by **shrimper Bob** » Thu May 10, 2007 6:54 pm

I've had a 10 gal going for a few weeks now, been feeding them Hikari First Bites powder. I never thought about making it self sustaining! Guess I need another light fixture, the one in the hood holds two 25watt small incandescent bulbs. Sure that's not enough. How many watts are your bulbs? I just picked up a reptile cage hood at Petsmart for $26. I put 2 6700K 25watt compact fluorescent bulbs in it. Put in on my shrimp tank. Maybe I need another one?
I'm not sure how to get the algae going though, maybe a trip the Chesapeake Bay or Ocean, not far from it.
Do you have to vacuum out the sheds?
Thanks for the great idea, my Discus love the brine shrimp, the yo yo loaches and zebras do too.

shrimper Bob · Post by **shrimper Bob** » Fri May 11, 2007 9:04 am

One more question.. Can the Kent algae foods for invertebrates be cultured? Is this live algae?
Bob

iturnrocks · Post by **iturnrocks** » Fri May 11, 2007 11:30 am

I dont know if its a fact or not, but Ive always had better algae growth with incandescent over compact fluorescent. It may just be the extra heat but Im curious if anyone else has noticed a difference, or perhaps knows why.

shrimper Bob · Post by **shrimper Bob** » Sat May 12, 2007 7:24 am

I dont know if its a fact or not, but Ive always had better algae growth with incandescent over compact fluorescent. It may just be the extra heat but Im curious if anyone else has noticed a difference, or perhaps knows why.

I've done hours of research on the net about light spectrum and plant growth. There seems to a lot of conflicting info out there. The GE daylight florescent bulbs are 6500k with a CR 0f 75. Incandescent bulbs usually fall below that. Seems that most light bulbs and florescent bulbs above 3500k, can grow algae, if left on long enough.
Check this page out. [url]http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Tech/ligh ... rum.html#1

pleco_breeder · Post by **pleco_breeder** » Sat May 12, 2007 7:41 am

Hello,

I just got back from grocery shopping, and found something that caught my eye in the lighting aisle that may be of interest here. GE makes a compact flourescent, the type used in incandescent fixtures as energy savers, that is 6700K. These still produce the heat of an incandescent, but have the correct range. I was just looking for new bulbs for green water for daphnia when I found them, but this may be a good time to try an experiment to find out whether it's the heat or bulb range since I can easily find 6700K flourescents to try with the other side of my green water shelf. I'll update once I've got density counts, but that may take a few days since I have to get accurate cell counts in the innoculations to verify that reproduction rates are not off by x degrees because of an extra cell reproducing in one culture or the other.

Larry Vires

shrimper Bob · Post by **shrimper Bob** » Sat May 12, 2007 9:21 am

I'd be interested to know, thats the same bulbs I just put over my shrimp tank. Nice crisp blue/white light. They seem to be a little cooler in temp than a 60 watt incandescent bulb.

shrimper Bob · Post by **shrimper Bob** » Thu May 24, 2007 2:19 pm

I wanted to bump this back up, got a questions about keeping a brine shrimp tank going. I haven't been successful in culturing any SW algae.
I just got a 250g bag of spirulina micro algae powder. I read somewhere.(got serious hard-drive overload from all the reading I've been doing.. think I need a good defrag.) the best way to feed the tank is to make a slurry with distilled water and the micro algae powder then feed through a turkey-baster. I was think I'd make up around 16ozs of solution and refrigerate it. Is this the best way to use this powder? Have any advice?
Thanks

pleco_breeder · Post by **pleco_breeder** » Thu May 24, 2007 4:29 pm

I've used the powder for brine shrimp, but don't think mixing ahead of time is a good idea. This is asking for a bacterial bloom. Even though they will eat the bacteria, it is not going to be the dietary equivalent of the spirulina. A better way would probably be to mix your slurry in smaller, single serving, portions. You should also note that brine shrimp are going to eat the vast majority of their food while swimming in the water column. As a result, you are going to have to feed very small portions as it is eaten. This is a VERY labor intensive method and you would probably be better off to start practicing on growing marine algae. A lot less time required, and you don't have to run home from work everyday during lunch to feed brine shrimp.

Larry Vires

shrimper Bob · Post by **shrimper Bob** » Thu May 24, 2007 9:02 pm

Thanks Larry, Getting a culture going makes a lot of sense, I already have enough mouths to feed and tanks to keep up. I looked into ordering petri-dish Tetasrlimis algae cultures and Micro-algae-grow from Florida Aqua Farms. Maybe a $25 U.S. investment, I'm a little hesitant to follow through. You think that would work?

TKD · Post by **TKD** » Thu May 24, 2007 11:33 pm

No comertial links are alowed on the site...

TKD

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri May 25, 2007 3:28 am

OK, let me repeat the post info from the beginning.

I use daylight fl. The tank is self sustaining. I am currently only adding 2ml of each part of the Pro culture about once every 3 weeks when the culture looks a little yellow. I don't need to keep a separate culture as the shrimp can't eat it fast enough. This tank is still going strong after 6 months and I get harvests when I want them. I normally take a netful twice a week.

I do keep a separate culture of tetraselmis going just in case.

If incandescents work better, it would have to be the heat. Soft white and grow lights do not work as well. To get the same amount of light you would need 3-4 times the wattage from a standard bulb. In my case Ihave a rack with 4 40 watt fixtures. I'd blow the circuit if I did this with standard lamps.

Let me repeat, the secret of green water is just LOTS OF LIGHT and some nutrients.

PM me for sources of tetraselmis. I've had continuous cultures going for a verylong time and I knowit is quite simple. It took me a long time to figure out how simple it was and finally get a culture that maintained easily.

shrimper Bob · Post by **shrimper Bob** » Fri May 25, 2007 6:26 am

TKD
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 2:33 am Post subject:
No comertial links are alowed on the site...

What was thinking, or was I thinking! Sorry Mustafa, can you pull that link off?

I'll pm you Larry.

shrimper Bob · Post by **shrimper Bob** » Fri May 25, 2007 6:28 am

Oh! that wasn't Larry, it was badflash!

seamonkey · Post by **seamonkey** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 10:58 pm

Hi there,

I'm interested trying to make a very small, self-sustaining brine shrimp + marine algae colony as a sort of closed ecosystem experiment. My goal is not to produce large numbers of brine shrimp to harvest; my goal is to achieve a very small, closed, balanced ecosystem as an ecosystem experiment. So, I found this thread interesting and would like to ask some questions.

Recently I started raising brine shrimp for the first time (from a pack of cysts bought at the local fish store). I have a somewhat less than friendly test environment for the shrimp (about 200ml water, 5g marine aquarium salt, occasional aeration through manual water stirring, no water changes, feeding wheat flour), but they have been growing for a couple of weeks now and are around 1cm long.

Now, as I said, I'm interested in seeing if I can make a self-sustaining, closed ecosystem similar to the one described at the beginning of this thread.

My first question is, how do you start the (marine) algae growing? With enough light, will the algae start growing by itself in the water? Or do I need to add some spores or other material myself to start the algae growing?

My second question is, how small can such a self-sustaining colony be? Is it possible in 200ml of water, or even less? You may have seen commercially-sold, closed, very small ecosystems like EcoSphere or similar products. I'm interested in trying something around the same size with brine shrimp.

Thanks for any help.

EDIT: Earlier I mistakenly wrote 200cc - I meant 200ml of water.