Feeding reef tank baby brine

Mrcote1 · Mar 23, 2019

Does anyone hatch baby brine shrimp and feed their reef tank them once in a while? They are small like copepods and have a good amount of nutrition and are very easy to hatch and cheap to buy the eggs. So I'm wondering if it would be beneficial to fish and coral to dump some fresh hatched brine in once in a while?

sghera64 · Mar 23, 2019

I’m doing it right now. Started a month ago. I grow nanochloropsis and tetraselmis micro algae to feed the BBS, both to grow them out and gut load them to enrich them in HUFAs I also feed my DT the micros to keep the shrimp alive, and the rotifers, in the DT. These pods also feed my mandarin.

Mrcote1 · Mar 23, 2019

Any adverse effects of keeping the brine in the system long term? Do they feed off of your copepod population?

Fourstars · Mar 23, 2019

None I've seen, Feeding live keeps food in suspension for better feeding and less decaying food. I would think the copepods would feed on the BBS. I feed live every other day.

sghera64 · Mar 23, 2019

Mrcote1 said:
Any adverse effects of keeping the brine in the system long term? Do they feed off of your copepod population?

They play nice. Brine shrimp may eat rotifers, I done know. But I think they are primarily herbivores. You need to keep a supply of micro algae in the system to keep them fed. They may subsist I’m detritus to a small extent. If you scrape your glass and don’t use fine mesh socks, that should do it.

There is a YouTube video out there of a guy with a huge in-fuge population of brine shrimp. He accidentally started it by adding a small number of them to the tank. I don’t know how he keeps them going.

Mrcote1 · Mar 23, 2019

Interesting, so how often do you guys hatch? When I had seahorses I would hatch every like 3 or 4 days and I would just put a bunch of SELCON in the BBS hatchery water to keep them nutritious. Adding a microalgae culture to the process sounds like a bit more complicated

Instigate · Mar 23, 2019

I've been raising the fry of my Banggai Cardinals and I keep them in a breeder box sitting in my DT until they outgrow it. So I feed BBS quite often, gets my baby Banggais fed and gives the fish something to do for a while. I also have a Fungia coral that died and is giving off babies so as the little Fungias break off I toss them in the breeder box because I've got a lot of conchs and these little Fungias are breaking off while they're tiny. I see them all swell up eating the BBS when I feed the Banggais.

Mrcote1 said:
Any adverse effects of keeping the brine in the system long term? Do they feed off of your copepod population?

None as far as I can tell. Everything in the tank seems to enjoy the constant food source and I've still got lots of pods.

Fourstars · Mar 23, 2019

For the first 24 to 38 hours they don't need to be feed as they feed off their egg sack. I hatch and feed while they are the most nutritious. I don't see any reason to grow them out.

Instigate · Mar 23, 2019

Mrcote1 said:
Interesting, so how often do you guys hatch? When I had seahorses I would hatch every like 3 or 4 days and I would just put a bunch of SELCON in the BBS hatchery water to keep them nutritious. Adding a microalgae culture to the process sounds like a bit more complicated

I usually hatch daily, but sometimes I hatch too many and I'll squirt some Selcon in there. I'm not bothering with macro but I do just let the film algae grow in the holding container. I hatch in one inverted bottle then separate the BBS from the egg shells and move them into the holding container(another inverted bottle) I used to clean that holding container regularly but then I decided to leave it, I figure the algae is just going to improve the water quality and possibly give them something to eat if I end up keeping them longer than 24 hours. I also put Selcon in because I don't know for sure that they eat film algae or are even able to in the turbulent water.

Mrcote1 · Mar 23, 2019

Okay sounds like you all believe in feeding baby brine! I'll order up some eggs and get back into it. And for the shells I've always used bleach and vinegar (separately obviously) to eat the outside shell off so it results in higher hatch rate and no chance for hydroids. Any of you see a feeding response from sps coral when you dump in the BBS?