Brine shrimp babes

[kirstyflash]

I absolutely want those jars. I'm going to Kmart tonight!

I hope they have them. Hubby got them from the homewares/kitchen section.

Batch 4: Next step done! Temps were all good so added the eggs. Went for 1/2 spoon/0.25g. There aren’t many eggs on the base of the jar this time which means they are all suspended in the water column. With the assistance of the bubbles they are exactly where they need to be and better chance of hatching.

 

[kirstyflash]

For @Katrina71 some more pics of the set up. Using a ceramic lamp for the heat, a kessle light (but can use a regular globe) and air pump with an airline manifold to each jar. And it’s all neatly tucked away in a cupboard to keep the warmth in.

 

[Katrina71]

That is almost exactly my plan.

 

[kirstyflash]

I forgot to mention, I have labeled the jars A,B,C,D. This is because I have a few different foods I’m going to try and see which gives the best growth. They can survive a few days on their yolk sac after they hatch so don’t have to feed till around day 4-7. They can reach adulthood 8 days from hatching.

 

[kirstyflash]

Batch 4: 15 hours since adding the eggs.
Great success in hatching again. Lots of little swimmers in there, I’ll get hubby to video them later on and post it for me. Turned the light off for now, but leaving the heat lamp on. It is only spring here after all and still not warm enough naturally.

 

[lejeune981]

If I have success I will gladly give you tips. We have no trouble with phyto... rotifers and copepods on the other hand... I’m just glad Little Blue eats frozen foods too

For copepods.. what I do.. I order them from podyourreef.com.. after I pour the tisbe pods in my tank.. I refill the pouch..add some reef roids.. and 2 weeks later.. pouch is packed full again..
That's the only way I can grow them.. I've got about 6 pouches in rotation on top of my display hood at all times... prolly overkill cuz my system is packed with pods.. but my mandis and scooters are fat and happy!!

 

[kirstyflash]

For copepods.. what I do.. I order them from podyourreef.com.. after I pour the tisbe pods in my tank.. I refill the pouch..add some reef roids.. and 2 weeks later.. pouch is packed full again..
That's the only way I can grow them.. I've got about 6 pouches in rotation on top of my display hood at all times... prolly overkill cuz my system is packed with pods.. but my mandis and scooters are fat and happy!!

Lol! As long as the fishies are happy, that’s all that matters

 

[kirstyflash]

Batch 4: Day 3- larvae concentration in A is quite low so will probably dose them earlier then the others. Have them some food today too.

A&B got

C got

And D got phyto

 

[vetteguy53081]

For copepods.. what I do.. I order them from podyourreef.com.. after I pour the tisbe pods in my tank.. I refill the pouch..add some reef roids.. and 2 weeks later.. pouch is packed full again..
That's the only way I can grow them.. I've got about 6 pouches in rotation on top of my display hood at all times... prolly overkill cuz my system is packed with pods.. but my mandis and scooters are fat and happy!!

They thrive very well with phytoplankton

 

[vetteguy53081]

Batch 4: Day 3- larvae concentration in A is quite low so will probably dose them earlier then the others. Have them some food today too.

A&B got

C got

And D got phyto

Those packets are similar to reef roids and phyto

 

[kirstyflash]

Those palcjets are similar to reef roids and phyto

Good to know

 

[Katrina71]

@vetteguy53081 reef roids feed pods/shrimp?

 

[vetteguy53081]

@vetteguy53081 reef roids feed pods/shrimp?

Its plankton based food- yeppers

 

[Katrina71]

Its plankton based food- yeppers

My son has been using it in his Biocube. Nitrates jumped to 20. No skimmer on his yet (your earlier response) any suggestions how much he should feed and how often? His pod population has exploded recently...

 

[kirstyflash]

Batch 4: Day 4+13hrs
Last night I split jars b,c&d in half and dosed to the dt’s, then topped them up with salt water. I found the concentration of shrimp was too great to sustain in one litre jars if I want them to grow out. I may have to split them again as there are so many. The fish in the 10g really didn’t mind, they went into a feeding frenzy.
EDIT: I also have started to turn the light off during the day since the weather is getting warmer.

 

[kirstyflash]

Batch 4: Day 6 - Lots of brine shrimp swimming around still, been feeding daily around 1ml of food per jar. There are a lot little swimmers but also a load of waste on the bottom, which could be problematic. Split jars b,c&d again after swirling them to try and remove some of the waste. Rinsed with sw and dosed the shrimp to the two dts and also some to the qt. We noticed the female scooter has been getting skinny so thought some brine might get her to put some weight on. Not much longer till the fish will come out of qt and back into the 40g, which is crawling with pods. The scooters will go in first.

 

[kirstyflash]

Batch 4: Day 8
Tried live phyto in jar A and not only are the brine happy, but the phyto culture is growing in there too. Jar C is thriving on the sea monkeys food. I am not sure about D yet as I dosed the freeze dried phyto before I looked at the population, and it’s really hard to see thru the green. B, which was fed with the food supplied by the company I got the eggs from only has maybe 20 individuals left alive. Tomorrow I will strain jar B and dose what’s there to the 10g tank. Then I’ll give three jar a good clean and start over.

 

[40B Knasty]

Nice thread. I was wondering if I could throw a little tip at you to help you with hatching. They hatch best between 80-82F° or 26-27C°. Get a container or an aquarium that can fit your 4 glass jars. Fill the container with fresh water and put a Aqueon pro 50W heater in it. Let the water heat up to the degrees they best hatch at. This will eliminate having to use a light completely to hatch them and they will hatch in 14-18 hours. All you have to do is fill the fresh water container the jars are in from evaporation every so often. This will keep your jars that are filled with saltwater at a stable temperature the whole time of hatching. Look at the turkey baster full of them after 14hrs. I used Kosher for my salt water mix. Salinity 1.025, temp was 80F(26C) in the tank my hatcheries were in. The only thing I can see this not working for you is the glass jars trying to float. With the 32oz Smartwater bottles I used. I filled the base with gravel rock to keep them sunk in the water. If you have enough water weight in the glass jar you might not have this issue of them trying to float around.

 

[kirstyflash]

@40B Knasty thanks for the tips. My eggs have been hatching in under 12hrs in my set up. I have just been experimenting to see if I was able to do it and just used the set up my hubby had for his phyto, rotifers and copepods.

 

[kirstyflash]

I love dragonnets. It's nice to see you putting so much thought into keeping them. You have a good variety of live food but one thing I would add to the dragonnets feeding schedule is Nutreva ova. It's a frozen food. You don't need to feed it that often maybe once a week but it's good for fattening them up plus if you have some sort of disaster that kills off your cultures you can use it for a main daily feed till you can get your cultures back up and running.

I forgot to look up nutrama ova, just did it now. I don’t think we have that brand in Australia but will look into prawn eggs. One of the dragonettes has dropped quite a bit of weight in qt.