Live Brine Shrimp Tank

[ScottyD36]

I just got myself a red fin goby last week. He is doing great in my tank. Eating all the food I give him. I wanted to start enriching his feeding by adding live brine shrimp for feeding. I have a small tank sitting on top of my desk that I want to turn into a hatchery for Brine shrimp. Below is a picture of my tank. I wanted to see for people that do this how difficult it is to hatch them and keep them and if there’s any tips or tricks I would need. currently the tank just has a small filter in it.

 

[R.Weller]

When we did the research on live foods, brine shrimp was at the top of my list. From what I recall, they have the most nutritional value in the first 2-3 days after hatching & there is a steep decline after that. The real issue is that the hatched eggs should float to the top while some settle on the bottom with the nauplii in the middle. You run the risk of an egg shell being consumed by the fish. The eggs cannot be digested & are potentially fatal to the fish. As a result, we never tried culturing brine.

What you could do with the tank you have is culture copepods. That’s the direction we have gone & we are starting to supplement our feedings with live Pods. They are harder to see, but the fish have no trouble tracking them down & they are fantastic for everything in the reef. With Pods, there is no need to filter, just fill an 8-16oz bottle from the culture & pour into the display.

Either way, enjoy the experience of live foods.