display | more...
Brine Shimp, Artemia salina are closly related to the Sea Monkeys.
Live in brine pools and other highly saline inland waters throughout the world. Occur in vast numbers in Great Salt Lake, Utah.
Young brine shrimp hatched from dried eggs are used widely as food for fish and other small animals in aquariums. They are about 15 mm in length.
Has a discrete head, a thorax bearing a series of leaflike limbs.
They feed primarily on green algae, which they filter from the water with their legs.
Hatching brine shrinp:
these instructions are for hatching brine shrimp for use as food for baby fish--these shrimp, raised this way, live for a week or less and never reach adult form. But as they must be fed to in some cases amazingly tiny fish fry, they need to remain small. This also assumes that the user of these instructions has general fiskeeping equpment and basic knowledge.

two liter soda bottle--well washed out, *no soap*
rock salt
dechlorinator (for water)
small air pump/tubing/airstone. 200-ish model is ideal
spare tubing
Brine shrimp net (tiny TINY mesh holes, not average net)
of course, brine shrimp eggs
additionally 'of course', water
optional: dry baker's yeast (powdered)

Fill the bottle to the top of the lable; dechlorinate following directions. Put in a small handfull (approx two tablespoons) of rock salt. Cap bottle and shake until salt dissolves.

Add between half and one teaspoon of brine shimp eggs. Run air tubing down to the *bottom* of the bottle. Leave the bottle in a warm place, in some sunlight, but not constant, direct sun.

Between 36-48 hours, occasionally as early as 24 hours but rarely, they will begin to hatch.

To harvest the shrimp for feeding:
take the pump out, let the water settle. The egg-cases will float to the top or sink to the bottom. You need to then siphon the shrimp out, through the net (lettign the water flow into another container) with the spare tubing. To make it easier to collect them, you may want to darken the room, then hold a small flashlight up to the bottle. They are attracted to light and will collect in the beam.

Take the net to where there is a sink and run cool water over it (gently) for about a minute, to wash the salt off. Too much salt will kill baby fish. Feed.

Replace amount of shrimp taken from bottle with equvalent addition of new eggs, this way the cycle keeps going. After about a week, week and a half, the water will begin to go seriously foul, and it must be poured out and a new culture started. Adding a *tiny* pinch of yeast sometimes helps sustain the culture for a bit longer, as the shrimp can feed off of this; add too much though, and it will destroy the culture.

The length of time brine shrimp need to be fed varies. It is usually entirely unnessecary for live-bearers, who will take flake food immediately. But the egg-layer fry most often will only eat live, moving food. It takes a good two months to wean bettas onto finely ground flake food.
