Hatching BBS

Hey folks,
I bought a ready made mixture of BBS eggs and salt mix from seahorse Aq yesterday, and had it in my own homemade bottle with the water form my community tank and a medium-strong airpump flow going into it for circulation,
Its been going for like 29 hours and it still looks like little grains of sand rolling around... None Hatched!!! Ive even stopped the flow..to see if any hatched eggs rose to the top but nothing Yet!!



Any Ideas>??

Regards

Stephen M.

did you have a heater in it?

Hey Stephen,

I bought BBS off the net (ebay - 100g for €10) - they came in a bag, not a tin, so won't last as long, but so far I've had no problems.

For my set-up, I use the waste water off my brothers Marine tank (which saves me messing around with salt). I just pop it in an upside down 2 litre plastic bottle (lots of videos on youtube of this) on a south facing window sill, and they have been hatching in 36 hours (when you turn the air off, you should notice after a few minutes that the shells have floated to the top of the water - sometimes tapping the bottle on the side gently will help speed this up).

I don't have heat or a 24 hour light on them (I read somewhere that they shouldn't be placed in direct sunlight, but perhaps they hadn't heard of the "summer" we've been getting here).

As the shrimp are only supposed to be good for a day, I always have 2 batches on the go at any time. I have micro-worms as back up, in case I'm worried that the bbs hasn't hatched.

When I am a bit more organised, I hope to put the bbs bottles in a small heated tank - so I can be sure the eggs are ready when I need them. Also, something useful to note, is that you can use just one air pump for aerate a couple of bottles at a time, by using a 2 way gang valve (helps keep costs down).

Helen

anglecichlid wrote:

did you have a heater in it?

Nope...

The instructions just said 'tap water' and airpump, I used tank water with an airpump and kept a light close on it...

Stephen M.

stem12 wrote:

anglecichlid wrote:

did you have a heater in it?

Nope...

The instructions just said 'tap water' and airpump, I used tank water with an airpump and kept a light close on it...

Stephen M.

i run my batches out in the shed cause the missis cant stand the noise of the air pump,and it would be a lot cooler out there but the pack i have which is the mix of bbs eggs and salt recommends you a heater.i have a small 50 watt that sits snuggly in the neck of the bottle and if you put the air hose in first and the the heater afterwards it holds it nicely. And i always get a really good hatch rate.

they might still hatch, i bought a hatcher that goes inside the tank before that use to hatch them in a day but i was buying decap eggs in seahorse. the last time i hatched them i only needed a very small amount so put some shelled eggs in a small tumbler of salt water mix without any aeration at all and they still hatched in 2 days so i'd say their could be a good chance their still viable...

Would be great to listen to all your ideas about the way best to set up these hatch them and raise them and so on,

Any ever use a extra large ballygowan i know a fella from here use to use one but never got any info on it or anything

Also looking to set up something to do with Brine shrimp and daphnia

Sean

Thanks every1 for suggestions and replys,
As youve probably seen on youtube- I made the DIY one with a 2 ltr bottle cut in half- with the cap end facing down (with the mix and water) and the other half I literaly just now put some warm water in, hopefully this will make a difference by the morning,Please God!!

This being my first attempt at BBS.. Lets prey it goes well!!

Will keep you informed,

Stephen M.

They've HATCHED!!!

Any ideas how to 'grow' them slighty bigger?
like where to keep them-what food to give them etc? anyone with expierence in this??

Please let me know the secrets!!

Stephen M.

You can feed and grow them by adding algae to the water- the easiest way is to grow your own "green water"
Fill glass jar with water from the tank and few drops of general plant fertiliser , put it on the south window sill and forget about it for few days. First culture of phytoplankton will take a longer to grow- next jar can be filled the same way with few tablespoons of water fro old colony.
As usual there is an easy way- you can by brine shrimp food from Seahorse- they used to have it.
You would need to place brine shrimp in bigger than hatching tank. You will need small sponge filter in it.

Few tips from my experience about hatching brine shrimp-
Use 2/3 of tap water and 1/3 of water from your tank. If you use only water from the tank water will stink after 3 days from the start.
When your buying eggs and salt mix, you are wasting a lot of salt- Buy another portion of Artemia eggs and start your hatchery usual way (description on label of the mix)- than add more eggs into it and you will get more brine shrimps from the same portion of mix.
I'm not using heater at all- water temp in my hatchery is 18 to 22 degrees depends from room temp. Low water temp won't stop or reduce hatching rate- it will only slow down the process.
If you decide to use heater make sure that water temp want go over 30 degrees on hatching time- this will reduce hatching rate.
Use strong aeration to avoid eggs concentration on the bottom of the bottle and do not use aeration stone- bobbles from the stone are small and they are making foam on the top of the bottle and plenty of eggs will be trapped in it.
Keep in mind that brine shrimp are the best only couple of hours after hatching- at this stage they have a lot more nutrition value for the fry than older Atemias.

Best of luck with your hatchery.

Hey Tomi
Thanks for your post, It helped alot,
So after they have hatched, I place them in a container or small tank, what water should i put them in? I heard like 2/3 saltwater 1/3 fresh and feed them the liquid form food from Seahorse Aq, Or even yeast could work to No??
Ive already set up a small jar with the tank water and 2 drops of plant fertilizer, so when this goes green what do I do.. place the BBS in side the jar? Or just feed them the water?..
Fill me in when you can! I Need Knowledge..Please!!

Stephen M.

I have several constant batches going that run in series with marine copepods. I harvest brine shrimp daily (except for weekends as I give myself a rest and get my freebies from SeaHorse aquarium at weekends).

The water is made with marine salt at s.g 1.015

I use a bank of upright 2-litre plastic bottles. Each bottle has 2 holes drilled into it to tightly fit a piece of air tubing (air going in, and air going out).

Temperature is normal room temp (but in our place that is very warm)....22 to 26 C on cool days.

I place a large multi-banked LED beside the bottles.

One air pump will power a large bank of hatcheries (plus the copepods) and then the output air from the hatcheries is used to power a filter in a fish tank (just to exploit a good air source).

I but the eggs with shells. Hatching is 24 to 48 hours (depending on temperature).

To get baby shrimps, the air is turned off and left to settle with the lights focused at the base of the bottles.
Empty shells will float to the top, and at the bottom you'll have all the baby shrimp.
If there is a mix of loads of eggs and shrimp, then the colony is not really ready for harvesting.

I have another plastic bottle top with 2 holes poked in it. One has some air-line that will reach to just above the bottom of the bottle and the other end allows me siphon the water into a brine-shrimp net.

The filtrate (the water after filtering) is then put back into the hatchery, new eggs added and that is good to do several batches until the number of egg shells becomes excessive.

ian