My Brine Shrimp Experiment

[Anonymous]

Congradulations! Just one problem...the egg shells are hard and bad for anything that eats them. They can get lodged in their intestines.

Decapsulated brine eggs should be fine, however.

--Colin

 

[Anonymous]

The can says that these eggs are "cysts." Anybody have any insight?

Thanks,
James

 

[Anonymous]

Those are normal eggs. Look here for decapsulation instructions:
http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/faqdeca.htm

Brine Shrimp Direct also sells decapsulated eggs.

--Colin

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Colin!

James

 

[Anonymous]

The cysts Can get lodged in the intestines of fish , but I think the risk of this happening is highly over exaggerated. I have been feeding baby banggai baby brine for a few years and have never been too cautious about the cysts except durring my first batch or two. Other fry such as clowns might very well have a problem but I wouldnt worry too much about a few cysts making it to the main tank and having some adult fish ingest a few

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Rod
http://members.aol.com/rodsreef/newpics

 

[Anonymous]

Rob, I took a look at your tank and it looks great! I like the little alcove/overhang/cave on the right side and now I might do something similar when I get my LR. (My tank is empty except for 7lbs of LR in my refugium.)

Good to know that the cysts won't hurt grown fish as I'm planning to have a pair of clownfish, some green chromis and something pretty for the wife in my tank a few months down the line.

Thanks,
James

 

[Anonymous]

Well, being lazy and curious, I decided to try to hatch brine shrimp eggs in my tank instead making a hatchery. Basically, I took a cup of tank water, poured in a tablespoon of brine shrimp eggs, stirred and dumped the mixture back into my sump/refugium. A day and a half later, I've got tons of brine shrimp wandering around my refugium and a whole bunch swimming around my display tank!

James

 

[Anonymous]

Wow Rod-great pics! How long has this tank been up?

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So long and thanks for all the fish...

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Scrooge, I made a mixture of eggs and tank water in a plastic cup, lowered the cup partly into the water and upended it so the water pressure kept the mixture inside the cup, then I lowered the cup to the bottom of my refugium and slowly let the mixture "slide" out and settle on he bottom. I had some float up and enter my main tank but it wasn't until they hatched and my refugium light went on (then they floated up to the light and got carried off in the current) that the hatched shrimp got sucked into my display tank and they're still there bobbing around.

James

 

[Anonymous]

Like Rod I've been hatching brine for a couple of years. Great fry food for our banggai cardinals and other reef inhabitants!
I have concerns about adding a teaspoon of brineshrimp cysts to a reef tank on a routine basis. These bad boys create a lot of waste product (ammonia?) in the hatching process. I've dumped their hatch water twice daily for a quite some time and I shudder to think of putting that garbage in my reef system. YMMV with a large system that can absorb/process more wastes.

Setting up a brine shrimp hatching facility outside of the tank isn't so difficult. Try this method that I've developed through trial and error and improving upon other's techniques.

http://members.home.net/coralreef/reef/articles/bshatchery.html

 

[Anonymous]

Rod Buehler

How did you take such good photo's?
What type of camera?
How far were you from the tank?
What type of lighting?

 

[Anonymous]

Yuckydog,

I'm considering your approach to brine shrimp but have a couple of questions. When you dumped the eggs in the sump, what is to keep them from then going into the pump and through the return into the main tank? Also, did you leave your skimmer running?



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Check out my site at www.hobbyschool.com/reef
Instructions for beginners, book recommendations and a few pictures.

 

[Anonymous]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by yuckydog:
Rob, I took a look at your tank and it looks great!

Good to know that the cysts won't hurt grown fish
Thanks,
James<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thank you James, but let me clear things up a little.. I didnt say that the cysts *wont* hurt the adult fish. It is possible... just a little over axaggerated, IMO



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Rod
http://members.aol.com/rodsreef/newpics

 

[Anonymous]

Bannerfish.. took me a minute to figure out that you were you ;-).. I will agree that I would want the hatch water in my tank either. That stuff is pretty rank sometimes. on a sid note.. my female is holding.. guess she got impatient this time, and didnt want to wait for the male to release his eggs. Oh, and the brine hatching.. I dont bother with a heatewr or the aquarium.. I just use 1 bottle with a 60 watt lamp used for heat and light.. whan they hatch I move them to a second bottle to feed from.I dont use the heater or the tank.

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Rod
http://members.aol.com/rodsreef/newpics

 

[Anonymous]

Terry, Thank you, that tank has been set up since Nov of 98.. it is an upgrade from a 125 tho, so it had a head start.

Mad Drama, I never concidered my photos to be that good, but thanks

.. I am a point and shoot guy. I used the Nikon CP950. Some pics were taken within inches of the glass and some were far away, and the tank lighting consist of 3 400w 6500 iwasakis, and 2 - 6 foot VHO actinics. I have reciently done a lot of rearanging on that tank, by moving out the big leather, a few LPS and some rocks, so it looks a little different(better) now

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Rod
http://members.aol.com/rodsreef/newpics

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Rod,
Yup, It's me!

BTW, your tank does look excellent and your photos turn out exceptionally well.

The female I have is distinguishable from the male. Her timing was all wrong one day. She released her eggs while the male was still holding a brood. Luckily, I was able to capture a shot of her in this condition. There was no way she could completely close her mouth around the egg sac, unlike the male who has no problem with this at all.

This only lasted a couple of hours at which point she fed the other fish and corals banggai roe. Has your female carried the brood for any length of time? Please keep me posted on the result of her brooding.