# decapsulation



## dp12345 (Sep 12, 2010)

trying to decapsulate brine shimp
is read that there will be a color change but don't see it i just estimate around 5 mins. for the bleach (chlorox) to take effect.
what is ur formula for those who had done this before.

also ur formula to hatch decapsulated brime shimps eggs.

any suggestion will help a lot.

thanks

dp


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## kev416 (Aug 22, 2010)

!5 mins. hydration with tapwater. I back siphon the water in the hatchery pop bottle rather than draining it through a reusable coffee filter. I use an airstone on a rigid piece of 3/16" tubing. Fill with bleach. It goes deep red colour in about five mins under strong aeration. Drain into the permanent coffee filter and rinse well. Then I feed it out. I don't decapsulate 'good' eggs. Only old eggs that no longer hatch. I buy all my eggs from Brine Shrimp Direct. I will not buy eggs from an auction or someone else. Too many times the eggs are old and if not used quickly they have a poor hatch rate. All eggs are kept the the freezer in their cans. A Tim Horton's coffee can lid fits the USA egg cans although if you buy a case of eggs they usually supply you with one lid. Why decapsulate eggs that hatch well? Are you getting shells in the tank?


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

There are lots of reasons to decapsulate eggs to hatch. No bacteria is a good one, as well as no hydra in your fry tank. Hatching water can be used more than once. No shells is also an advantage.
As far as decapsultaing, goes, I hydrate for 1 to 2 hours in fresh water. I use a small container, like a freeze dried fish food container about 1/3 full of water. After hydration, I add about an equal amount of bleach and stir for 5 minutes. I then pour all of it trough a brine shrimp net. A caution here; the new brine shrimp nets are too coarse to allow this, as the cysts will go right through. I generally dip the net into a water and small amount of vinegar solution to neutralize the bleach. I then add the cysts to an inverted 2 litre soda bottle, that has about 1.5 l of hatching mix. I don't remember the ratio of salt to water, but I think it is around 3tblsp. My hatchery floats in a small tank that has a heater and the temp is set for 80F. A 5 gallon tanks can float 3 hatcheries if necessary. I discovered recently that the suggestion to place a light to shine on the mix does seem to increase yield.
My experience has been that all cysts hatch better if decapsulated, your hatch is cleaner, and you get no shells in your rearing tanks. You will also know what your actual hatch rate is, which you can't possibly know if you don't decapsulate. I am using eggs over 12 years old that still hatch at 50% or better. The unhatched cysts are also eaten. No bacteria or hydra going into fry tank is also a huge plus. Reusing the hatch water up to 3 times is also a bonus.
To give you an idea of how old my cysts are, they were purchased from Angels Plus for $8 US 16oz can. This came to $12 Canadian with exchange and taxes when brought across the border.


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## dp12345 (Sep 12, 2010)

what kind on salt do u use. do i have to dechorinize my water?
I heared that there are decapsulated brine shimp being sold in the market, i read that u can feed these directly to ur fish.

any advise.

dp


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Cysts you buy decapsulated won't hatch. They can be fed directly, but my experience has been that nothing beats live BBS, freshly hatched. The sooner after hatching you feed them, the better. You can use any salt, but if you are concerned about the iodine, you can buy kosher salt. If you are going to hatch them, you want them all to hatch as close to each other as possible. At 80F they will hatch between 16 and 24 hours. The food value in BBS is in the yolk sac, so, you want to feed them before they consume it.
Alternatives to BBS are microworms and the smaller Walter and banana worms, which are very economical and easy to culture. My personal experience with them is that they aren't as good, as BBS, but they will do in a pinch, and are very easy to always have on hand. they are especially convenient for small spawns.


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## kev416 (Aug 22, 2010)

Brine Shrimp Direct sells decapsulated brine shrimp for feeding. Baby guppies love it. It's a good food source. For my angels I only use live brine. I'll feed excess to my larger angels as well. It keeps them vigorous and always searching for food. With a 90% or 80% hatch out I won't bother decapsulating for hatching. I do use a large round wash basin to collect. I place a small piece of 2 x 4 under one side to tip the basin to one side. Then I wipe my finger on my forehead and touch the high point of the water. The oil from your skin magically makes all the floating shells migrate to the other side. Sounds a little gross but it works like a charm. Then I shine a light, one of those clamp on desk lights used to hatch, at the high side to attract all the baby shrimp to one side. I collect using a 3/8" hose for speed. Leave a small amount of water at the bottom and wait until the remaining shrimp migrate to the light and then collect what's left using a rigid piece of 3/16" pipe. It's shell free and quick. Salt is cheap. I use Windsor salt from the grocery store. I also use epsom salt for alkalinity. Two tablespoons salt, 3/4 tablespoon epsom salt per quart. I use Prime as recommended on the tapwater to remove the small concentration of ammonia. I hatch for 36 hours.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Sounds like a lot more work, but if it works, for you who am I to criticize. When I was raising a good sized spawn of angels, I would do 3 hatches per day.The majority hatch in 18 hours. Each one in a 2 l soda bottle.The question I have for you is how do you know what your hatch rate is? I have seen those high numbers claimed on all sorts of ads, but how can you tell? Even a poor hatch will produce a huge number of live BBS. The only way to know for sure is to decapsulate and see what is left unhatched.


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## dp12345 (Sep 12, 2010)

question is to decapsulate or not?

what brand name of brime shimps do u use

thanks 

dp


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## kev416 (Aug 22, 2010)

If you follow the same method day in and day out you can see sutle differences between let's say hatching out for 36 hours versus 24 hours or 65% versus 80%. Leaving it an extra 12 hours makes a significant difference in the amount of shrimp from my experience. Mind you the eggs are less than 3 months since being purchased. Perhaps older eggs won't show much of a difference. In the summer I usually don't water bath the hatcheries. I still use the old vinyl hatching bags from San Francisco Brand and the work on a cup hook. It's easier to suspend it from an old wooden shelf. As for the hatch out rates. I usually buy 80%. The cost has jumped significantly. I use to buy a can for $8 in the nineties but now it's about $30 US. 90% is worth $42 US. I have unopen cans of shrimp that have a zero hatch rate. They are about four years old. Something must have happened in the collection of these eggs. I told a friend I had trouble with them and he didn't believe me. So I gave him a can. He told me later that he couldn't see one live shrimp in the entire batch. I told him to keep it and decapsulate. Another friend who is a guppy breeder uses decapsulated quite regularly. Of course a baby angel needs live brine after becoming free swimming so unless I'm growing out live bearers or mouth brooders I won't decapsulate that often. What you said about the nets they sell for brine shrimp is so true. The mesh is too big. I use an old Hartz Mountain baby net. It's the only net that can strain the smaller San Francisco brine shrimp quickly. I have Tetra brine shrimp sieves but I find they drain too slowly.

I'll go and decapsulate those zero hatch out eggs and see if they hatch. You got me curious.



> The only way to know for sure is to decapsulate and see what is left unhatched.


I agree. But the eggs I have purchased in the last few years have had the highest hatch out visually looking at how red and how volumous the collection is, I don't need to test it. But I agree with what you said. I guess that's how they test it.


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## kev416 (Aug 22, 2010)

dp12345 said:


> question is to decapsulate or not?
> 
> what brand name of brime shimps do u use
> 
> ...


http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/

As stated I don't decapsulate.


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