Can't raise brine shrimp.

[legrunt]

I recently got the idea of trying to raise some brine shrimp to adults in order to give my tank some wrigglies to hunt down.
Most of the stuff I've read and watched make it sound so easy.

While I can hatch the eggs no issue, when I transfer them to the larger holding tank, all the newly hatched nauplii die off within a couple of days.

Any suggestion?

The holding tank is newly set up. I have some seachem matrix in there that I brought over from a canister filter that has been running for more than 6 months. Above that scattering of matrix, I have put in a new sponge filter. Water is mixed to 1.026 using the same salt mix as my main DT.

The first try, the nauplii lasted about 3 days. I fed them some yeast mixed into water and fed enough to slightly cloud the tank on the first day I introduced them into the tank.
I thought perhaps I fed them too early and their mouths had not developed yet.

My second try, I thought I would feed 24 hours after introducing them to the tank, but before that could happen, most of them have died off.

Could it just be a new tank syndrome and I need to cycle this tank same as all other marine tanks?

Some vids show people just throwing newly hatched nauplii into a box without flow, aeration or filtration, and they seem to thrive and even multiply.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Three important requirements are:
Temperature/salinity
Lighting such as light bulb
Aeration/water movement

 

[gabrieltackitt]

Be sure to match the temp of the hatching water to the grow out tank

 

[legrunt]

Three important requirements are:
Temperature/salinity
Lighting such as light bulb
Aeration/water movement

Got a fluval sea nano 3.0 light above.
Ambient temp is around 29 C, so I don't run a heater or chiller. Only the DT has a chiller to reduce the temp to 25C
Got an airpump running a straight tube down the side to provide some movement and another tube going into the sponge filter.

Still no luck.

Be sure to match the temp of the hatching water to the grow out tank

The hatching container and grow out tank are right next to each other, so there should be no temp variance.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Got a fluval sea nano 3.0 light above.
Ambient temp is around 29 C, so I don't run a heater or chiller. Only the DT has a chiller to reduce the temp to 25C
Got an airpump running a straight tube down the side to provide some movement and another tube going into the sponge filter.

Still no luck.



The hatching container and grow out tank are right next to each other, so there should be no temp variance.

An incandescent bulb would be better and provides residual heat

 

[legrunt]

An incandescent bulb would be better and provides residual heat

Hmmm... I'm already at 29C, which is about 84F. Don't you think an incandescent bulb would be too much heat then?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hmmm... I'm already at 29C, which is about 84F. Don't you think an incandescent bulb would be too much heat then?

Incandescent is the required light at least back in the day when i raised them. Verify salty enough as they won’t hatch otherwise

 

[legrunt]

Incandescent is the required light at least back in the day when i raised them. Verify salty enough as they won’t hatch otherwise

Not sure if you missed what I wrote in my OP, but I have no trouble hatching them. It's keeping them alive until they can grow into adults is what I'm having trouble with.

 

[jhuntington12]

Same issue, I also do tank transfer method with my DT and the hatchery but after about 3-4 days they just seems to all die off. I am going to try a smaller batch of fry. Let me know if you find any secret weapon.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I did miss that. I filter them in fine net and transfer ro clean container. They hang out by the light bulb. I fed phyto and even yeast to bring to larger size

 

[legrunt]

Same issue, I also do tank transfer method with my DT and the hatchery but after about 3-4 days they just seems to all die off. I am going to try a smaller batch of fry. Let me know if you find any secret weapon.

Sure.

Right now I am thinking of just leaving it as is for a couple of weeks to "cycle"... And try again after that.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Depending on the size of the tank and the density of Brine Shrimp you may have to perform more or less frequent water changes. During your weekly 50% water changes removing unhatched eggs and hatched egg shells is necessary.
Fortunately Brine Shrimp Nauplii and adults are indiscriminate feeders – particle size is the main criteria! Spirulina powder, brewer’s yeast, fish meal, soybean powder, and hard boiled egg yolk are all foods that will be accepted and are easily obtained.

Live foods include green water algae and Infusoria (microorganisms like bacteria.

 

[Victor_C3]

Although I’m not happy to find it to be a struggle to raise brine shrimp, I’m glad to see it’s not just me.

I see several mistakes in my methodology after reading through the above posts. I hatched my brine in a 7-10 PPT salt solution and then I left them in there and never changed water or increased salinity. I fed crushed flake food and enough live plankton to turn the water greenish for about 12 hours before it would clear up. After about a week, everything seemed to have died off. I had a cheap 3-watt LED light, a heater set to 78 degrees, and an air bubbler.

So as I understand it, I should hatch the brine in a lower salinity solution then transfer the fresh hatched brine to full salinity freshly mixed saltwater for them to grow out. At that point I should do weekly 50% water changes. Is that correct?

Is feeding the brine pulverized pieces of flake food and live plankton adequate? I only feed that as it is too easy to feed the brine when I’m also feeding the display tank the same foods.

I’m sorry if it seems like I’m trying to hijack the thread.

 

[Thespammailaccount]

I had pretty good success feeing live phytoplankton to tint the water a light green color. Have not tried yeast. No heater. Ambient temp ranges from 66-72. I would keep them in about a half gallon or gallon to reduce the use of my live phyto. No filters. When I would see small bubbles around the edges ammonia is building up so I would either add more water or strain them through a sieve but a coffee filter works too. I used one of these containers. I now only just hatch baby brine to feed my young pipefish and grow phytoplankton to feed the hatched brine and to feed the tank

 

[KingLucy1997]

I have had similar issues hatching brine shrimp as described, so I bought some adult brine shrimp instead. They all died within the day. I see people saying that they need flow and aeration, but not with a bubbler because it clogs their filter feeding system (although that last statement seems controversial). I had 1000 adult brine shrimp temperature acclimated in a 10 gallon tank. I did make the mistake of allowing the water in the bag to go into the tank because the supplier had added some phytoplankton and I wanted to keep the food source. In addition I added some spirulina powder. For some reason they all congregated in one corner of the tank where there was the most sunlight, and when they ventured off the currents created by the bubbler and waterfall filter would knock them around, sometimes killing them. There were also some protists eating some dead crabs that caught a few of the brine shrimp like a web, but this did not seem like it was a significant amount of the death. I kept seeing dead ones floating around and their population steadily declined until I did a water change which killed all of them except like three that died shortly after. I hadn't calibrated my pH meter, but when I did I noticed the water after the change was below 8. There were maybe only 50 or so left right before the water change, so something else must have been killing them. Salinity was 1.025 and temp was 77 degrees F. I didn't have a pH meter set up so don't know if it was dropping steadily throughout they day and that is what killed them? If they need aeration and flow, but get killed by fairly minor currents because they are so delicate and weak, how are you supposed to keep them alive? are they simply not compatible in a traditional saltwater aquarium because they evolved to live in stagnant waters? I can't imagine them surviving with any sort of current in the wild. I also know they are evolved to handle low oxygen, so wouldn't aeration be unnecessary? Do adult brine shrimp need a different set up than your typical saltwater invert?

 

[Gup]

I tried hatching brine shrimp eggs when I had a FOS 4 decades ago. I never had any luck either. But what I did find then & still do, is that when I purchase adult brine at my shop, I keep them refrigerated. Without that, the water will stagnate quickly and they will all die

 

[KingLucy1997]

That makes sense, bacteria colonize the empty cysts. I guess you haven't tried this, bur my goal was to create a self sustaining population of brine shrimp from starting from fully grown adults that could coexist with if I put some creature that eats brine shrimp with them to give them a perpetual source food,