brine shrimp hatcheries

Baby brine shrimp (BBS) are a live micro food suitable, among others, for caudate larvae.

There are different ways to build your own hatcheries and this method has worked well for me.

BUILDING YOUR HATCHERIES

You will need:

• 4 sturdy plastic bottles (2-3l)

• air pump

• airline tubing

• non-return valve(s)

• air valve(s)

• 2 straws

Method:

Wash your bottles well. Do not use any detergent as any residues might kill your brine shrimps.
Using a sharp knife and/or scissors, make 2 stands, 2 lids and 2 containers (with the lids as bottoms).

To make a stand, simply cut the top off the bottle. Lid and container can be made from the same bottle - cut the bottom off at about 4 cm. Cut a little incision (circled) for the airline into the top of your container. The lid will hold it in place.

Attach a short piece of tubing to the air pump outlet, then add a non-return valve to protect the air pump. Continue with more tubing leading into the hatchery. You can also add a valve for adjusting the air flow (the white bit in the photo below).

If your air pump has two outlets (like the one pictured), do this for each outlet. If there is only one outlet, you will need to place a divider (T-shape) after the non-return valve. Put the straw over the end of the tube. You can also use rigid tubing if you have it.

Place the container on top of the stand, put the tube in place and cover with the lid.

HATCHING BRINE SHRIMP

• brine shrimp cysts (eggs) - can be purchased in a fish shop or (usually much cheaper) on e-bay

• dechlorinated water (just leave some tap water to stand in an open container overnight, do not use chemicals to treat the water)

• salt without additives (anti-caking agents)

Make sure you buy hatching brine shrimp cysts – non hatching ones are also sold. These are simply fed to fish as they are and are not suitable for animals requiring live food. Decapsulated cysts can also be bought. These reduce the risk of your animals swallowing the sharp shells but they are very expensive compared to regular cysts.

There are many things that will need a bit of tweaking so allow yourself some time to make sure that when your animals hatch, there is food for them. Newt larvae usually start feeding several days after hatching.

It's best to have at least two hatcheries running at the same time because the cysts take 1 - 3 days to hatch and you will need a constant supply of freshly hatched brine shrimps. Hatching time depends on temperature and light (more light and higher temps mean shorter hatching time). If you can, place your hatcheries on a window sill.

Dissolve 3 teaspoons of salt in 1/2 litre of dechlorinated water for each container. Add brine shrimp cysts - depending on how many animals you are feeding, this could be anything between 1/4 or a full teaspoon.

Place the tubing into the container so that it reaches the bottom and put the lid on top. Switch on your air pump and adjust the flow so that the water bubbles enough to keep all cysts moving. If the cysts are collecting in the bottom even with a strong air flow, check that the tubing goes all the way into the bottom. If cysts are getting stuck to the container above the water line, swirl the water around or flush the cysts back in with a turkey baster. Some cysts are quite buoyant at first so make sure you stir them about an hour after placing them in the hatchery.

Now wait for the cysts to hatch. In the picture below, you can see the difference between a freshly started hatchery (left) and one which has hatched brine shrimp in it.

TO HARVEST THE BRINE SHRIMP

Either purchase a brine shrimp net or use the following:

• a small sieve

• cup

• kitchen roll

In either case, you will need a turkey baster.

Switch off the air pump and wait for the water to settle (10 minutes or so).
The shells will float, unhatched cysts will stay in the bottom and between you will have hatched brine shrimp. They gather above the bottom in the narrower part of the container - this should be obvious because they are bright orange.

Carefully remove the lid. Squeeze the air out of the turkey baster and place it into the water where the orange brine shrimp are. Make sure you don't get any of the shells in as they can be harmful to the animals. Suck the brine shrimps in.

Place the net or sieve lined with a piece of kitchen roll over the cup and empty the contents of the turkey baster into it. Pour the water from the cup back into the hatchery. Using the turkey baster again, rinse the brine shrimp gathered in the tissue or the net a couple of times with some dechlorinated water to remove salt. Now either turn the tissue/net out into the tank or rinse the brine shrimp out with some more dechlorinated water into the cup and pour into the tank.

Some people also use a flash light to attract the brine shrimps into one place where they can be easily collected. It is also helpful to cover the whole hatchery with a box with only a small hole to shine the light through.

After a few days, the hatchery will stop producing brine shrimp. You can reuse the unhatched cysts from the bottom.

Clean the container very well before starting a new batch.