# Hatching Brine Shrimp for feeding



## herb_remington (Jun 21, 2013)

Sorry if this is not the place to ask, but I have a question about brine shrimp.

I do not have fry, but I purchased a large bag of brine shrimp cysts pretty cheaply to hatch for my juvinile angels and juvinile/adult tetras as a treat/nutritional supplement. 

Is there any value in trying to grow the brine shrimp? Or is it best just to feed them to the fish in the nauplii stag before they have lost some nutritional value?

I hatched a batch and fed them to the fish yesterday. They all semed to love the shrimp, but the shrimp were very tiny and made quite a cloud in the tank until they either were eaten, sank to the bottom or swallowed by the filter.

I am pretty sure I put too many in this first time as I underestimated the amount of shrimp that would hatch and will correct this in the future.

I have an NPT, will the occasional shrimp cloud hurt the tank and is it worth hatching the shrimp to feed to the fish?

Thanks in advance.


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## JG06 (Nov 5, 2006)

I would avoid overfeeding in a NPT. Might throw off the balance.

Is there any value in raising/breeding brine shrimp? Absolutely! Especially when you keep angelfish; angels love them. And if you have any other inverts in your tank like hydras, they'll love itty bitty brine shrimp as well. 

Brine shrimp aren't difficult to raise. I think all you need is salt, water, and a form of aeration and they'll do the rest. If you work it just right, you might end up with a perpetual source of food for your young angels. I'd say there's more pluses than minuses to attempting to raise brine shrimp. I would for it were I in your position.


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## natefol (Feb 14, 2012)

freshly hatched brine shrimp are nutritional. if youre lucky enough to grow them out they provide a huge meal for most tropical fish you can purchase live brine shrimp at youre LFS usually or even online.


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## herb_remington (Jun 21, 2013)

I read that theyare most nutritous right after hatching. They are small, but even the larger fish looked to enjoy thenselves.

I was going to try to grow them, but the reading said they have a high mortality rate as you try to raise them. 

I got a ton of eggs cheap, so I think I will just hatch them with my shop light, mason jar, and bubbler. 

In fact I have some that should be ready for feeding tonight!

Thanks for the input!


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## ObiQuiet (Oct 9, 2009)

Is an air pump bubbler necessary or would an HOB waterfall or submerged pump provide enough aeration by disturbing the water surface? I ask because I find the air pumps too noisy. 

Of course, the water intake would have to have a very fine filter on it.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Your post inspired me to write up a how-to guide for hatching brine shrimp. I've been meaning to write it for a while and finally got round to it.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...956-brine-shrimp-hatchery-guide-easy-way.html

If you want to grow the shrimp to adults you will need to transfer the newly hatched shrimp to a larger container or tank with the appropriate amount of salt and a bubbler (don't use a fine diffuser for the bubbler or it will clog up the shrimp's mouth parts and they'll die).

In this tank you want to add a few dog biscuits and a strong light. The biscuits will encourage bacteria to grow in the water column which the shrimp will eat, and the nutrients released by the food will trigger a green-water algae bloom which the shrimp will also eat. In 8 days the shrimp will become adults and you can feed them to your larger fish.

Also, the shrimp are most nutritional when they first hatch because they have not used up any of their energy stores. Within about 12 hours they lose more than half of their nutritional value. This doesn't make them useless as food though, they are still packed with goodies that your fish will love. In addition, if you transfer them to a tank with food - like bacteria and algae - they will keep their nutritional value. The loss of nutritional value is simply due to the poor little things starving and using up their reserves not due to their age.

Just make sure you don't let the salt build up in your main fish tank with regular shrimp feedings, you ideally want to rinse the brine shrimp in freshwater before feeding them to fish.


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## herb_remington (Jun 21, 2013)

Thank you for posting the how to!! that is basically how I am hatching them. I use an air tube to suck them off the bottom and them run them trough a coffee fitler. The eggs stay floating and i get nearly all the shrimp.

Feeding the shrimp to my fish is my new favorite thing. I like watching them normally and obseving their "normal" behavior, but the feeding frenzy is pure entertainment.

How big of a container would you uneed to grow out 1/2 teaspoon of 90% hatched shrimp?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Probably a fairly large one. I had about 20-30 shrimp grow to adulthood in a half gallon jar without problems. You could have a couple hundred in a 10g tank I think. The nice thing is, the shrimp will actually lay eggs and hatch out on their own, a self perpetuating culture. So just scoop up some shrimp every week or so.


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## herb_remington (Jun 21, 2013)

thanks. Now to convince the wife I need another tank........


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

buy one without telling her, then when she notices tell her your tanks had babies during the night.


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## herb_remington (Jun 21, 2013)

A plan has been hatched


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

I just posted a revised article (Nov. 2017) on hatching and raising brine shrimp. To raise nauplii to adulthood would take a _very large_ tank and probably is not worth it. (Apparently, one quart of water won't support more than about 8 adult brine shrimp under the best of natural conditions.)

But to grow hatched brine shrimp out for a few days works very well for me.  My fish go nuts over these juvenile brine shrimp. They may not have the fatty acids (HUFA) required by coldwater marine fish, but they are otherwise incredibly nutritious.

Article is on the aquarium page of my website at: http://dianawalstad.com

Attached is picture of some of my 3-day-old brine shrimp.


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