Super Simple Brineshrimp Hatchery

Most folks breeding Tropical Fish have, at one stage used brineshrimp on a daily basis to rear batches of fry. Each individual has his or her own methods and receptacles for going about this.
The receptacles used can either be from a commercial source or made in the home by the hobbyist.

There here follows a small pictorial piece on how I personally go about making my Brineshrimp hatcheries.
The best receptacle I have found to date for making such a hatchery is a Sainsburys concentrated fruit juice bottle. It has a very long neck, which is ideally suited for funnelling the shrimp out for feeding.

The items I use for making this item are as follows;



An empty Sainsburys High Juice bottle
A small hobby Knife
A marker Pen
Silicone Sealant
A length of airline
An Algarde straight airline connector
An Algarde airline clamp
Drill with a 7mm Bit

First, I need to remove the label and give the bottle a thorough wash.
Then with a pen I mark out a rectangular section of around 75mm x 25mm



With the hobby Knife I now set about cutting this section out and discard the off-cut.



The next job in hand was to drill a 7mm hole in the base of the bottle and the same in the centre of the cap.



An Algarde straight airline connector was then placed through the hole in the cap and sealed into position using everyday aquarium silicone sealant



Once the silicone cured I screwed the cap back onto the bottle and finished off the drain assembly, namely I added a short length of airline to the connector and attached the clamp. A longer length of airline was fed into the bottle all the way down to the neck area, the other end was then attached to the air-pump.



If you are wanting to make a similar unit like this, you now have two choices on how to hang it. You can either drill holes with a pad saw in a shelf and set up the hatchery/s as I have done


or
Drill a couple of holes, one either side of the bottle's upturned base and thread some string through. You can now hang this from a hook as seen in the smaller prototype version below.



To harvest the shrimp I place a jam pot or similar with a cotton handkerchief draped over the top beneath the drain assembly. I turn off the air supply and let the contents settle. The majority of the newly hatched shrimp will make their way into down into the neck area, where its simply a matter of opening and closing the clamp for the amount of nauplii you require. I then flush this with freshwater and dip the handkerchief into the fry tubs.

I hope you have enjoyed this little pictorial account of how to make a simple brineshrimp hatchery for little or no outlay.
Admittedly the above account is aimed more at the novice fish breeding enthusiast rather than the professional but I hope there is something in it for everyone

Regards
C

could i use any bottle? as a trip to sainsburys will cost me a bomb in petrol

good stuff
handy way of doing it,u explained it well
rgds

Very clever thanks for the hints and tips-
Denis

could i use any bottle? as a trip to sainsburys will cost me a bomb in petrol

LOL
Any bottle will do but one with a longer neck I found to be better
Regards
C

dont use a flagon of cider
there would be a smell of apples off the shrimp;)

what temp do you hatch them at and do you need a light?

i tried hatching them in something similar onlt i didn't drill holes in the bottom just weighed an air stone down into the neck. you idea is better as draining is very easy and probably the best thought out way as far as being very user friendly. well done i will try this way when i get hold of some silicone just wondering if you could post up details of salt:water ratio, what salt and lighting/heating and airflow details for the best yield (not even half of mine hatched but the bottle was sat in the sump in the dark

Great tips there mate, thanks for this.

Jay

What temp do you hatch them at and do you need a light?

First up you need 4 requisites for hatching brineshrimp cysts.

1. Air; for water agitation (the cysts need to be suspended)
2. Saline solution; (I personally use about 6 large teaspoons of Cooking Salt not Table Salt to a litre of tap water). If your tap water has a low pH the add a small amount of Bicarbonate of Soda to bring it to about 8. With the use of a refractometer I keep adding enough salt and to bring the Specific Gravity to 1.026 (You dont really need to get this technical though)
3. Light; Light is needed to trigger the hatching mechanism.
4. Heat; Brineshrimp need a pretty high temp if you wish them to hatch quickly 78'F will hatch you a batch in under 24 hrs depending on species.
I have a live food cupboard into which I have fitted a light bulb, its a 15w Daylight spectrum energy saver mini twist 6500K this is left on 24/7 and provides both heat and light not only to hatch my brineshrimp but also to culture green water for my Daphnia, ideal heated conditions to culture Paramoecium, Microworm, Bananaworm, Fruitfly and Grindalworm.
I hope that was of some help
Regards
C

Hi C,
thanks for sharing you should write a book on all these io for one would be very interested in getting hold of this

Mickey

Hi John
i am not sure but may have seen them in B&Q have a look at www.diy.com there is a store in tallaght i think.

the other place might be in a reptile section of pet shops. but i am proply mixing my lights up!!!

mickey

Hi John,
I tried sourcing them locally, I searched everywhere including all the major DIY establishments but all they had was warm white.
I eventually got them over the Internet from BLT Direct
www.bltdirect.com/products.php?cat=1856&...aylight+Mini+Spirals
Very prompt transaction and return.
Regards
C

Hi C,
thanks for sharing you should write a book on all these io for one would be very interested in getting hold of this

It's been mentioned before Mickey.
I may consider a little .pdf E-Book at some stage.
Thanks for looking
Regards
C