Brine Shrimp Continual production

[Tuddy]

I am thinking of creating a self sustaining enviroment to culture brine shrimp.

Has anyone attempted this before as I have some questions I need answers to.

1. First the specific gravity for the brine shrimp to best reproduce in, I have searched high and lower on the internet and find various answers the most common been 1.10-1.120.

2. Is nanochloropsus to seed the container the best food source for brine shrimp reproduction and growth as I have also read using rice bran is what commercial farms use but not sure of how much pollution this could impact on a small system approximately 80lts each.

3. Do I need to circulate the container with a air or would it be better to just let the system sit and do water changes when water quality drops.

4. I have read that in optimal conditions that female brine shrimp will produce live free swimming young or eggs that will hatch within 1 hour which is my main target, but I am interested to know that if they only produce cyst and these be collected and then hatched as per normal hatching of brine shrimp eggs.

5. Any other idea's that could help will be much appreciated

Cheers Andrew

 

[clownfish75]

I once introduced some baby brine to a huge nanno culture they grew then crashed the culture, i think balancing the algae culture and the shrimp reproduction would be very very hard.

i would airate to level out the pH and O2 levels a bit.

find a cheap food, otherwise you could go broke feeding them.

Christian

 

[jake levi]

Hi Andrew
I use two ten gallons, reseeding every other day, I feed both tanks twice a day on selco and I strain out about a gallon of water of the tank I am feeding from , and replace that with a gallon of nanno, the gallon that came out of the artemia goes back into the nanno, I do siphon the bottom of both tanks daily plus wipe eggs daily from sides of both tanks. I generally get both juveniles and a few almost adults in both tanks. I put the eggs in the tank in the morning, right after siphoning the tank to feed from. Once I crank up several tanks of rotis I may drop to just one artemia tank. This gets me bbs with loaded guts, they can use a lot of nanno.

 

[apistomaster]

When I grow out brineshrimp I only add the cleaned nauplii. I feed them with pinches of brewers yeast and within 3 weeks they are producing eggs which hatch, too. The culture eventually is messed up with the newly layed eggs so you have to separate the eggs from the shrimp. It is'nt very productive for the effort because it's easy to harvest the big shrimp faster than they breed. Supplemental nauplii help keep up the harvestable quantities.
I guess it's relative depending on the quantities you need. A 33 gal. plastic garbage can will yield more shrimp than you can grow in 10 gallon aquariums.

 

[jake levi]

An alternative method I saw at Scripps and used for lots of nauplii is to take clear 5 gallon water jugs, cut the bottoms out and silicone taps into the necks, they are inverted in a rack with a good strong airstone just above the neck, then a light overhead and one or two vertical at the sides. Scrips and some other labs keep these in a heavily lit cabinet, they also culture phto in these , when its time to harvest take the airstone out for ten mins or so and the necks will fill up with nauplii, I usually fed an hour or so before harvesting, green water, yeast and/or selcon.

 

[apistomaster]

Hi Jake,
I sounds like what you are describing is just the hatching and enriching brineshrimp nauplii rather than growing them out to adult size if I'm not mistaken.
Larry

 

[Luis A M]

Very easy to do,Tuddy!
1-Use a 200 L wading pool or so.Fill it with discarded water from siphonings.SG 1.020/1.100 are fine.
2-Feed a yeast/spirulina mix-
3-Definitely.Bubble air in the center.
4-Forget about eggs.They´re live bearing at this SG.
5-Feed only when the water clears,keeping it slightly turbid.Collect with a coarse net,saving the smaller nauplii.
Good luck!

 

[jake levi]

Hi Larry
your useage on these will determine how many large that you get. If its a low useage you will get some juveniles and occasional adults, but mainly as you say these are used for large amounts of nauplii. My two tens give me both, adding eggs every other day, small quantity, right now I feed yeast as the green water I had morphed into tetraselmis and I dont like the odor.

I had a rack of these hatchers for food fish fry. Later used then for feeding freshwater angel fry.

The wading pool is the best for warm seasons.

 

[apistomaster]

Luis, you're cheating because you are so close to the tropics. I'd be right with you if I could do that. Then again I do get almost 5 full months where I could try your method instead of mosquito larvae that I usually culture but that's not very safe anymore.
Last year I heated the pool and grew out a spawn of black neons and this year I went unheated and grew out Cory. paleatus and common BristleNose Plecs with a few stray Apisto. borellli. I will try brineshrimp next year because the green water is no problem to grow out in the sun but I will just have to try my new microscope to se what take hold because it won't be a controlled experiment. But I really like the idea. And I like playing with the microscope. I bought a binocular with4 objectives including 100x oil immersion lens and all the bells and whistles. It is educational to see what lives in the substrate muck, green water or look for the disease organsims killing your fish for which there are no cures!
Hi Jake,
I gathered that enriched nauplii were your main goal. This pool idea has merit even if for only part of the year. I bought three of the 2.5 liter plexi-cone hatcherers that with lots of air will hatch about a tablespoon of cysts but you have to be there just in time to prevent them from smothering after turning off the air. It may seem like extra work but what I do is maintain a separate aquarium varying the size to suit the quantity of eggs I need to hatch. I separate all the nauplii from the hatchers twice so I end up with nearly pure nauplii and transfer them to the prepared holding tanks which have a slow bubbling sponge filter and an air stone running vigorously. This method allows some time for enriching the shrimp and to be able to harvest shell-less nauplii for feeding. I just can't seem to duplicate the success others report with de-cysting the eggs and getting those to hatch and I have tried every permutation I can think of. I use the premium 90% hatch Utah Salt Lake strain although I keep a small suplpy of SF Brand on hand because the smaller nauplii are helpful to have sometimes.

 

[Tuddy]

Thanks Guys for you replies

A lot of very useful information very much appreciated

Andrew

 

[jake levi]

I have used everything from shipping styros to kiddie waders, but only in Fla did the waders work more then 5-6 mos, it wasnt too hard to get a small air pump to them, I'd prefer that everytime as it prevents surface film from getting out of hand.

Right now I just add a 1/4 tsp every other day and its finishing off the last of the live bearer fry, most of them go to the Detroit Club auction the end of oct. A very few to my last couple community tanks I am keeping. After that the BBS go to the corals until I get some big enough marine fry. I do add nanno daily to both tanks as well as yeast solution. So I get red brown nauplii.

 

[apistomaster]

Mmmm....yum. I'd lke an order of fries with those Artemia.
Sound like you have a good system, Jake. I don't have any reef fish larvae just hungry discus fry.
I have just about talked myself into getting a 24 gal cube. Saw one one sale at www.petsolutions.com for only $169.99 that is calling my name and VISA number.
Larry

 

[Luis A M]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8234349#post8234349 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by apistomaster
Luis, you're cheating because you are so close to the tropics.

Not that close,unfortunately.Winters average 10ºC=50ºF.Latitude is 35S.Where 35N hits the east coast,Virginia?.
And Tuddy lives in OZ and he is like me enjoying a brand new Spring,how about that you North dwellers?
I keep the bs vat in a sort of greenhouse where the heater keeps minimum temp.at 13ºC.But I really don´t think natural light is needed,so you guys could place your bs pool wherever you like!
The beauty of my system is 0 maintenance,just top up or feed when needed.

Larry,you know where C.paleatus come from?They can take any cold! :eek2:

 

[jake levi]

Luis my winters average -8 C, wanta trade ?

whats the attraction of the 'cubes', I keep seeing them and thinking they are priced about double what they should be. Someone educate me.

I see them and think how many regular tanks they would be.

I am a firm long time user of bbs, when properly enriched they give very fast brood development. When used with other live foods they add nutritional density. Gotta love em.

 

[apistomaster]

Luis ,
I'm at about 47deg North so we have real winters. Big time skiing country in the winter. I know C. paleatus come from your backyard that's why I went with them and A. borelli this summer instead of Amazonia fishes. I do have a partial basement I could set up the wading pool pond in. Thanks for the inspiration. It is a little cool but once the poulation built up I bet I could produce a useful yield of brineshrimp because it holds about 160 gallons and is six ft in diameter. I have a 300 watt heater that stays on because the themostat is malfunctioning so it would keep the water close to 80dF. and the brineshrimp would be full size in three weeks plus all sizes below.
Hi Jake,
The cube minireefs aquariums have everything but a good skimmer and if they are on sale it's cheaper than buying all the componets separately for such a small tank. And then there are some people like me that are deficient in delayed gratification and my last reef tank was a 6 ft 125 gal money sucking black hole and having been there and done that ($5000) an instant minireef would be a new challenge to see what I can do on a nano scale.
It's a close call though as a standard 29 gal tank and a DIY wet/dry like I did for My Heckel discus tank would be reasonable as another option. Just opening the box and adding water would be a quicker way to get back into reefing has a certain appeal to me. Nothing magic about them. Jus convenient. I have a space problem as I raise discus and many other species of freshwater tropical for fun and profit and I only have room for maybe just the one more tank and I miss reef keeping.
Larry

 

[jake levi]

I missed it too, so slowly switching back, I can outfit a 29 for a lot less then your quoted price on the nano 24. Even walmart has a 29gal kit for much less .

Also, there are some breedings I want to try, I just enjoy it all.Except the money hole aspect, I have to shop and compare a lot. Right now watching ebay for a workable dissecting microscope. It'll happen.

Except for a couple 75s I like the 29s, a lot that can be done with them, I could make do with a couple 55s but would prefer the 75s. Hopefully over the next year I will add about ten more 29s.

 

[apistomaster]

Hi Jake,
The kits are cheaper fo sure but they usually don't have a high quality high volume filter or the intense lighting needed by corals. Add the cost of a really good skimmer and even a 29 can cost a lot to set up. I also should have clarified that I have 10 Heckel discus in 100 gal of water not a 29.
Larger is always better for the stability of any aquatic system but I'm sure you know all that. I happen to think 75 gals are a very desirable size for a lot of reasons but I've never tried a nanoreef so it would be something I can do on the side and learn something new at the same time.
www.aquaticeco.com has microscopes from student grade to professional at very good prices for a new ones. I was able to buy a binocular compound microscope with mechanical stage, condenser, built in light source and 4 objectives including 100x oil immersion lens for $350 and it is a remarkably good instrument for the money. I looked all over the internet for a used one but even they sold for more than what paid.
Larry

 

[Luis A M]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8241942#post8241942 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by apistomaster
Luis ,
I'm at about 47deg North so we have real winters. Big time skiing country in the winter. I know C. paleatus come from your backyard that's why I went with them and A. borelli this summer instead of Amazonia fishes. I do have a partial basement I could set up the wading pool pond in. Thanks for the inspiration. It is a little cool but once the poulation built up I bet I could produce a useful yield of brineshrimp because it holds about 160 gallons and is six ft in diameter. I have a 300 watt heater that stays on because the themostat is malfunctioning so it would keep the water close to 80dF. and the brineshrimp would be full size in three weeks plus all sizes below.
QUOTE]
borellis come from further North.Local cichlids are facetum,Geophagus,Chrenicichla,etc.
BS is a great food for FW fish,perhaps better than for SW.And less chances of disease.
If you don´t have enough discarded SW to fill your vat,you can just use table salt and may be some bicarbonate to adjust pH.

 

[apistomaster]

Hi Luis,
Thank you for the tips. I have a simple recipe consisting of rock salt, magnesium sulfate,sodium bicarbonate and for good measure I add a bottle of trace element replacement to produce a low cost high volume shrimp grow out water. Kind of been there before but just had'nt thought of putting my wading pool to this use before it was brought up on this thread.
When I had a 125 gal reef I could use the old water from the water chanes but I used a plastic garbage can and the pool will be far more productive with it's high surface area to volume ratio.
Larry

 

[apistomaster]

Hi Luis,
Thank you for the tips. I have a simple recipe consisting of rock salt, magnesium sulfate,sodium bicarbonate and for good measure I add a bottle of trace element replacement to produce a low cost high volume shrimp grow out water. Kind of been there before but just had'nt thought of putting my wading pool to this use before it was brought up on this thread.
When I had a 125 gal reef I could use the old water from the water changes but I used a plastic garbage can and the pool will be far more productive with it's high surface area to volume ratio.
Larry