Live Brine Shrimp in reef tank?

chrisbenavides

chrisbenavides

New member
Hey I was wondering if I can keep live brine shrimp in my reef tank? I am currently setting up (cycling) but seahorse tank, and will be feeding them live brine shrimp, as well as frozen Hikari Mysis.

I was wondering if I could keep live brine shrimp in my reef tank while the seahorse tank cycles. Any thoughts?

I have 2 clowns, a yellow tang, a royal gramma, and a bicolor blenny. Don't know if these guys like to eat live brine, but I guess thats good too!

THANKS!!!
 
Well I guess its good that the fish would eat them, but its bad that I can't store them in this tank for now.

So how long do they survive in 1.026 SG?
 
what about keeping brine in a refugium? Brine could slowly sucked/drained into the sump, pump into the tank. Food for the fishes for oh, say a week maybe. Maybe on vacation or something. Think it might work???
 
I order a bag every week from work and keep them in a 2 1/2g tank under my 55g. The water in the brine tank is around 1.026 They all live in there until I put them into the tank.
 
What are they going to live on in a fuge? The green water they feed on won't stay in the fuge, it will spread throughout the system.
Not practical in my experience.
Without a good food to continually feed on, the nutrient value of the brine shrimp will not be of any value.
Brine shrimp can live in water anywhere from brackish, to a salinity of 220.
A s.g. of 1.026 at 80F would be considered to be optimal conditions and if water quality and food conditions acceptable, they will live three months in those conditions.
For the most complete information I've been able to find on brine shrimp, read this paper on live foods for the mariculture industry, Artemia section.
CLICK HERE AND SCROLL DOWN TO 4.0
 
Ok....so who is right with reagrds to shrimp living in a reef tank with SG 1.026 and temp at 80F?

Rayjay states: Brine shrimp can live in water anywhere from brackish, to a salinity of 220.
A s.g. of 1.026 at 80F would be considered to be optimal conditions and if water quality and food conditions acceptable, they will live three months in those conditions.

Is this true, that they will live in these conditions, so long as the corals/fish don't eat them first?
 
Well, they'll live if they get enough food. That's what various people report, anyway. I'm not sure how well they'll reproduce, etc, in saltwater mixes, but they should survive with no issue if they don't starve.
 
I guess this answers my question. So long as they have food, they can survive in the reef tank. Probably won't be too long, because fish will eat them up (which is I guess good)....but I'll go ahead and try. I was just worried that they could be bad for corals or anything else in my reef tank. I also did NOT want too much dying in the tank that would trigger ammonia spikes, so I'll try not to add too many to see how this goes.

THANKS!!!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7011639#post7011639 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chrisbenavides
Ok....so who is right with reagrds to shrimp living in a reef tank with SG 1.026 and temp at 80F?

Rayjay states: Brine shrimp can live in water anywhere from brackish, to a salinity of 220.
A s.g. of 1.026 at 80F would be considered to be optimal conditions and if water quality and food conditions acceptable, they will live three months in those conditions.

Is this true, that they will live in these conditions, so long as the corals/fish don't eat them first?
Click to expand...
I must have missed something!!!!
I didn't see where any one said they would live 3 months in a reef tank.
They can't live where predators live, and, even if there were no predators, there would be no ideal conditions foodwise in a reef to keep them alive.
You asked "So how long do they survive in 1.026 SG?" and I replied "Brine shrimp can last 3 months with feeding and husbandry!" The feeding conditions can't be met in a reef tank.
You asked again "How long do brine shrimp live in SG 1.026 for?" and I replied "A s.g. of 1.026 at 80F would be considered to be optimal conditions and if water quality and food conditions acceptable, they will live three months in those conditions.
I guess I should have underlined if water quality and food conditions acceptable
The only incorrect statement I can see in all the posts, is that "the water is not salty enough".
 
"I'm not sure how well they'll reproduce, etc, in saltwater mixes"

Brine have no problem with salt mixes. I started with I.O. and used to recycle the water at first because of cost with the volumes I used, but now, I have a home made salt mix I use and again, no problem.

"So long as they have food, they can survive in the reef tank. Probably won't be too long, because fish will eat them up"

Absolutely correct. Food won't even be a consideration with the fish you mentioned having in your tank so it would be hard to dump in too many at once. Even if you put in a table spoon of live brine, they won't last all that long. Also, what they don't get in a short time, power heads and pumps will chew them up.
The main thing to remember is that they should be gut loaded for an hour to an hour and a half before placing them in the tank, to be of any significant value to your fish.
This is especially important when feeding them to seahorses.
By the way, you might add P.E. mysis to your food list for the horses.
As the horses grow, they have no problem with the larger P.E. mysis, and they prefer them as they consist of mainly complete, intact specimens of mysis, not pieces.
I just added seahorses to a tank in November and I'm really enjoying them.
Good luck in your project.
 
ALSO important is to only put adult brine shrimp only because they will shed there shells often untill there an adult
 
reef562 said:
ALSO important is to only put adult brine shrimp only because they will shed there shells often untill there an adult
Click to expand...
That is of no importance because if there is predation in the tank, they won't live any way, and if no predation, they still need food added to survive, plus have no power heads/pumps to chew them up.
 
heathlindner25 said:
Brine shrimp don't have much nutritional value,it's like us eating paper.
Click to expand...
Please do some research before you pass on INCORRECT information like this.
If you had read the link in post number 9 of this 6yr old thread, you would find that live adult brine shrimp grown from great salt lake cysts has protein levels of 50% to 60%. This is more protein than there is in many foods we feed our tanks.
Also you can enrich them to provide more fatty acids (huffa).
 
KCombs said:
^YUP, basically...most frozen (esp. Sally's) is junk
...but you can gut load live AND BBS under 4hrs is good
..how/why did this thread come up? :hmm5:
Click to expand...
Take into account the fact that the packagers are listing protein content in frozen brine shrimp in Wet Weight Percentages, while most foods list in terms of Dry Weight Percentages.
In the case of frozen brine, if you take out ALL the moisture including the packaging fluids then report the protein in DW% then you will find a much better reading.
Conversely, if you take flake or pellet food that are reported in DW% and soak them, and then report protein in WW% then the results will be significantly lower.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Brine shrimp Hatchery
Replies
15
Views
892
Paul B
Paul B
A
  • Question Question
Question about stocking list
Replies
5
Views
623
CharleyDavis
C
M
Automatic Feeders for Nano Aquarium. Ideas?
Replies
3
Views
302
Dr. Reef
Dr. Reef
9
Help with Biota Yellow Tangs' eroding fins
Replies
15
Views
746
92reefer
9
L
How much should i feed my fish?
Replies
2
Views
458
JCOLE
JCOLE
Back
Top