<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15464119#post15464119 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rayjay
Suzi, for what it's worth, I've switched to feeding brine with just two basic products now.
I start with live nannochloropsis (green water) for the first week, and then switch over to using Algamac Protein Plus, which is a powder that I mix in a blender for two minutes.
I use very high density growing of brine so it takes them about 5 to 6 weeks to get them to adult reproducing size.
Probably for lower density growing, I would switch from green water to Algamac Protein Plus after 3 or 4 days as they grow at a much faster rate at lower density cultures.
I could use the Protein plus right off the bat, but for me, importing the product from California to Canada is expensive for shipping, customs and taxation and exchange. (triples the original cost basically) Growing nanno is cheap.
Once a week, I gut load the brine that I'm feeding to my seahorse fry or seahorse adults, with Algamac 3050 which is mostly schizochytrium, a fatty acid which as a powder, stores longer than the Selco emulsion products I used to use.
The Protein plus already uses some of this 3050 enrichment as a part of it's makeup. The major part of the Protein plus appears to be spirulina powder, an excellent food by itself.
It makes my cultures of brine much better by being able to harvest at any time and any size and not have to gut load the brine, as they are basically being gut loaded by the food they eat all the time.
A drawback is that the Protein Plus comes in kilo bags but perhaps you can split portions of the bag for others in the hobby.
You could check with Dan at SS as he already sells small packets of the Algamac 3050 for enrichment.
I also use this Algamac Protein Plus as the only food to culture my rotifers as the density I can achive per container is probably at least double what I can do with green water.
Algamac Protein Plus
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15464177#post15464177 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by suzimcmullen
I did use the algamac product Dan sells and never saw any better or faster results. But I agree with you that it's great to have them already gut loaded.
I go through a massive amount of brine so growing them that slowly is space intensive with so many jars at various stages. I was able to get them to adult size in 8 days at one point. But the cost was prohibitive and was a lot more work than growing them more slowly. I had to feed them so much food that the tanks would become literally bogged down with their shed skin cells. I had to change the water twice daily to achieve that kind of growth. So when I was doing that I was using around 12 gallons per day of saltwater. I can NOT afford that much salts in a months time on a regular basis. So I have been trying to find a better, quicker result without it being such a messy process. But I suppose if I think about it, since they shed their skins 20 times in their growth, having all that shedding of skin in just 8 days can't be anything but messy.
I also tried a much larger water volume and growing them in the 10 gallon tank. But again, it was taking up so much counter space and I had 3 air pumps going to make sure I didn't have an accidental crash due to pump failure. That was annoying and LOUD! LOL.
Suzi
If it was the Algamac 3050 product from Dan,
it is only an enrichment, not a food. Algamac Protein Plus is the food.
As for salt water, I don't use marine salt's for the water, but use a mix of 10 parts sodium chloride (I use cheap evaproate purified water softener salt) and one part epsom salts. (I buy at Walmart in a four litre container, also pretty cheap) Also, I mix the salt to s.g. of 1.017 as it works great and doesn't use as much salt as 1.026.
I use between 5 and 8 twenty six gallon garbage pails for rearing the brine shrimp in. (Depends on demand from the stores I have been supplying)
I begin with 3 tablespoons of cysts per garbage container.
I soak the cysts in water for 1/2 hour and aerate them for a further one hour before bleaching them to decap and disinfect the cysts.
I split the decapped cysts into two parts and place in two inverted two litre pop bottles for hatch out. After 24 hours, I let settle for about 4 minutes and siphon off the top 3/4 and place in the large container. (I keep returning the water to the container and let sit for 4 minutes each time, siphoning off, until there is mostly just the dead material in the bottom)
Each barrel is elevated (for siphoning purposes) and tilted on an angle with the air line at the lowest point of the bottom for better circulation.
I DONT'T do water changes for the first 10 to 12 days when using nanno for the first week, but once using the powder, changes become much more necessary.
The secret is to feed less but more frequently as a good portion of the powder settles before being eaten. Once some settles, it seems to "draw" any future feedings to the sides and bottom where some has already accumulated so any extra beyond what they eat in a period, settles and deteriorates. Once feeding the powders, I do water changes between 5 and 7 days usually, depending on whether or not I overfeed at some point.
As for the molts, in my case most of them decompose withing a day or so. The detritus in my containers is mostly uneaten and decomposing foods, some decaying molts, and brine shrimp feces. The feces can also be seen throughout the water as they accumulate.
When it comes right down to it, raising brine shrimp in any meaningful quantities is labour intensive and time and space consuming and there is no way around it other than to buy from places like livebrineshrimp.com. (not an option for me as they don't ship across the border)
