Page 8 - TBAS-Sept-2020

-8- TBAS September 2020 ....................

Can we talk?! . . . No I mean it. We need to get real serious here and discuss
something that quite a few aquarists never thought about, and I am going to give
you a solution to the problem...who said there was a problem? BABY BRINE
SHRIMP (Artemia salina). Oh I know, it’s not worth the time right?!?! They only
last for about two days and the hatch is not very good and collecting them is
a real pain and the bubbles create a mess your mother wouldn’t clean up . . .
RIGHT? Let me suggest a few solutions. I have been hatching baby brine on a
regular (every day) basis for about 3 years now and all I use for equipment is one
2 gallon glass bowl and a shrimp net (bought at a local store) . . . Oh also a 2 gallon
plastic lemonade pitcher . . . I’ll explain in a moment. With that I have hatched
enough baby brine for 25+ tanks of baby angelfish every day for about 3 years.
OK, here goes . . . this is my experience. First of all I use the bay (Tampa) water. I
live about 6-8 blocks from Tampa bay and make a weekly excursion to the shore
and get 5 gallon bucket of saltwater . . . no cost! I have found that this water is
perfect . . . salt wise, if you dilute it to about 1.015 on the hydrometer, but I broke
my hydrometer several years ago so, the point is just water down the saltwater
a little for the hatching. Generally I will run some sort of power filter on the water for
several hours . . . but sometimes it is almost crystal clear . . . really! I’ll fill the 2
gallon bowl with about 3/4 full with water and insert the air hose . . . did you notice
I said “air hose” and not air stone? Not so much spray guys. It takes a piece or
two of lead to keep each of the two airlines on the bottom but the fact of no air
stones has cut the spray to virtually NO spray. I push the capacity of the 2 gallon
bowl in terms of capacity of shrimp but if you do a good job of harvesting it will be
fine. I generally put in 2+ tablespoons...not teaspoons . . . of brine eggs and
NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING extra to help the eggs hatch . . . no Epsom
salts, no nothing, they will do just fine. Which brings up the next point with brine
eggs. I am really sorry fish shops, but those little vials of brine eggs wouldn’t
hatch if you hit them with a sledge hammer. A couple of years ago I found myself
out of eggs and my source wouldn’t have any for 5-6 days . . . I panicked and
actually had to pay 5 gazillion dollars for a vial of eggs...well it would be okay if
the hatch would be decent . . . I think maybe 7 shrimp hatched . . . maybe it was 8.

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