Hatching Brine shrimo

[MarkS]

Am I over thinking this?

My baby angels are about 36 hours from free swimming. So tomorrow morning I'll start the brine shrimp. I've got a quart of aquarium water floating in the baby tank so the temp will be about '82 degrees. I bought marine salt and about to add with airstone. Tomorrow morning I'll put about a 1/2 teaspoon of eggs. My question is I read that ph should be 8.0 or higher. Mine runs 6.5-7.0. Is that a big deal, and if it is I heard baking soda helps. but how much do I add.

[texasdiscusman]

check it after you add salt.

[MarkS]

check it after you add salt.



wow, what a difference. 8.4


Thanks TD

[texasdiscusman]

If your using a electronic meter or pen to check ph.You need to clean it before going back in fresh water

[MarkS]

I just use the old test tube methode, but now I want an electronic meter:cool:

[niko]

Since it appears that you have never hatched brine shrimp before here's my advice:

You will have a much higher hatching rate if you run a good amount of air (airstone) in the salt water.

Count on having live baby brine shrimp for about 3 days. That means that about day 2 of the first batch you need to start a second one. And so on.

The simplest way to separate the baby brine shrimp from the water is a cofee filter. Rinse them with some tank water before feeding to the fish.

--Nikolay

[MarkS]

Great advice Niko, I'm glad to know about the 3 day thing, and I have an airstone in the bowl as we speak. Thanks

[pam916]

I use 1 quart mason jars, when I want bbs I pull out the airstone and wait five minutes to allow the egg casings and shrimp to separate, the shrimp will be at the bottom and the casings will float on the top, you can use a piece of air tubing and a 10 or 20 cc syringe to siphon the bbs from the bottom of the jar, shoot the water and bbs back thru your brine shrimp net while holding over the jar so that the water goes back into the mason jar and then swish your net full of bbs in the tank water for the babies to eat. You can rinse your net full of bbs with freshwater, although I don't. You can also swish them out of your bbs net into a cup of tank water and then suck them back into the syringe and shoot them at the angel babies when they are very small so that the bbs are easier for them to find. When the bbs hatch I start a second jar and when those hatch, I clean the first jar and start it again. I don't worry about the ph. I use water from the faucet, add salt, eggs and airstone. I agree that you need a good amount of air (air stone).

[texasdiscusman]

I dont use a airstone at all just enough air to keep eggs turning.To much air can actually damage the newly hatched shrimp