# How do you hatch your brine shrimps



## cold (Jul 18, 2011)

Please share your best practices, Do's & Don'ts

Please also share if you use some special hatchery to hatch the eggs.

Which eggs are the best one?


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

I use an inverted 2 liter pop bottle with the bottom removed, floating in a small tank. The airline is fed into the bottom through a rubber stopper. I use just enough air to keep the cysts moving. For salt I have a large bag of table salt from Costco, that doesn't seem to be iodized. If I remember correctly I use about 3 tablespoons to a liter and a half of water and 1/4 to 1 teaspoon of cysts. The small tank that holds the bottle is heated to 80F, which is easier than trying to heat the hatcher by itself, and it also works as a support for the hatcher. If I need larger quantities I float thee bottles in a 5 gallon tank. As well, I decapsulate the cysts with bleach before hatching. This does a few things. It kills any bacteria that may be on the cysts, removes the hulls which can be a problem for fry, and the unhatched cysts can be eaten by the fry. At 80F the majority of the cysts will be hatched in 18 to 14 hours. The hatchery container needs to be clean and should be washed an sterilized between uses, discarding the smelly water, unless the cysts were decapped, in which case the water can be reused, as often as 2 more times.
For maximum food value, the BBS should be fed to the fry as soon after hatching as possible. What you are trying to do is feed the BBS' yolk sack to the fish fry, as the BBS without the yolk sack doesn't have a lot of food value.


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## Bwhiskered (Oct 2, 2008)

I hatch my shrimp in 1 gallon plastic jugs with the bottom cut out. They sit in a rack to hold them upright. I use an open air line that is weighted with a small tile held to it with an elastic band. I use Windsor water softener salt in the pellet form. 5 tablespoons per gallon. I have 2 set up all the time and go the 48 hour hatch at fishroom temperature. [About 78F] That way you get a higher hatch than you do with a 24 hour. I feed some shrimp from the jar in the morning and finish it at night. They are always set up with the jug being cleaned. I always start with cold tap water and let it warm up to room temperature slowly as warm water is lower in oxygen. I have a stainless steel tube attached to an air line to syphon it into a net. Only a weeks supply of eggs is kept in the fish room in a sealed jar. The rest is kept in a sealed jar in the freezer. Some may not agree with my method but after all I only raise between 5,000 and 10,000 fish a year.


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