Sea Monkey

[tango]

Hi Bros,

Anybody know the formula of keeping or breeding sea monkey?
The $3 per pack stuff is too much for my tetra, but they definitely loved it. Also, my puffer has changed their diet as well, apparently it is easier to swallow sea monkey than to crack hard snail shell.

Tango

[stormhawk]

I'm assuming that you're talking about Artemia, aka brine shrimp, which is also called sea monkeys.

If you bought the adults, they need to be kept in marine water. For that you'll need to mix some marine salt with fresh tap water and keep it aerated. The adults will stay alive if you feed them with spirulina algae or some kind of powdered food dissolved in water.

They are filter feeders and will stay alive for a few days at best.

[tango]

Hi stormhawk,

Will the adults re-produce off-springs if the above conditions are meet?

tango

[stormhawk]

Hi Tango,

The females will give birth to live young but not many will appear if they are too crowded in a container. It is not economical to raise the young since you can just buy the eggs and hatch them yourself.

[tango]

Hi Tango,

The females will give birth to live young but not many will appear if they are too crowded in a container. It is not economical to raise the young since you can just buy the eggs and hatch them yourself.

can I keep re-use the salty water from the LFS to do the subsequent hatching from the eggs?

[pantroglodytes]

and where do you buy these eggs?

[tawauboy]

you can purchase these from lfses. look for brine shrimp eggs.

[stormhawk]

can I keep re-use the salty water from the LFS to do the subsequent hatching from the eggs?

Yes you can but it is best to use a fresh marine mix. The shrimps stay alive longer if the water is changed.

Sometimes the water from the LFS is not exactly salty so if you do a fresh mix, the eggs will hatch better. They tend to hatch out in larger numbers depending on the salinity of the water.

[stormhawk]

and where do you buy these eggs?

Like what Tawauboy has said, you can find these sold as brine shrimp eggs at the LFS. Note however that the hatch rates of these eggs are dependent on the quality of the eggs and how they are kept air-tight and dry. Some eggs you buy from the LFS may not even hatch at all.

[tango]

Yes you can but it is best to use a fresh marine mix. The shrimps stay alive longer if the water is changed.

Sometimes the water from the LFS is not exactly salty so if you do a fresh mix, the eggs will hatch better. They tend to hatch out in larger numbers depending on the salinity of the water.

Possible to use table salt instead of marine salt?

tango

[Justikanz]

You can hatch the eggs with table salt. But to rear the brine shrimp, you would be better to use marine salt as marine salt contains more than just sodium chloride, which is what table salt is all about. Good luck and have fun!

[stormhawk]

Table salt will give you very lousy to almost zero hatch rates. I would suggest that you use marine aquarium salt instead, or aquarium grade salt if you want to go cheap.

[tango]

Table salt will give you very lousy to almost zero hatch rates. I would suggest that you use marine aquarium salt instead, or aquarium grade salt if you want to go cheap.

Yes, fully agreed with stormhawk bros.

First trial using table salt has failed. Not a single egg is hatched after 48hour of waiting.

Some more questions:
a) If I use marine salt, what is the amount of marine salt (gramme?) to put in 1 litre of water?

b) Any variation in the salt quantity if I use aquarium salt instead?

c) Also, what is the smallest packet of marine salt that I can purchase from LFS, so far the one I see come in very huge packet.

d) Do I need to use a heater during the hatching process? what is the ideal hatch temperature?

Btw
tango

[Justikanz]

Eons ago, when I first tried hatching the brine shrimp, I had success with table salt... But that was more than 10 years ago liao... Cannot recall much liao...

Anyway, measure by specific gravity lor for the amount of salt to use... Think the egg bottle should state these info... Normal room temp should be ok...

Oh, be sure your (er... The brine shrimp eggs you bought, rather) eggs are viable in the first place hor... Dun waste time and money and try to hatch 'expired' eggs...

[stormhawk]

Hi Tango,

To answer your questions:

A) I don't measure the amount I use. I scoop one spoonful in a Chinese soup spoon for 1 litre of water. Add a little more shouldn't do any harm.

B) No variation I think, except in most cases, the bag of aquarium salt will tell you how much to use per litre of water.

C) The smallest packet is from this particular brand which I cannot recall. I use Red Sea salt and bought a medium pack. Although there's alot of salt, I need BBS for raising my fry so its a necessity for me. Find a cheap source or share with some bros here. The reason why it comes in a large pack is because most marine hobbyists need a large amount of salt every now and then for their water changes. Last time during the "Nemo" craze, there were loads of small packs for sale. These days its just the larger packs. No choice I guess but I think C328 should have the smaller packs for sale.

D) There's no need for a heater because of our climate. The ideal hatch temperature is anything from 24 to 28 degC. I don't recall the actual figures but I find no problems in hatching BBS in our average room temps in SG.

If all the factors are in place, including aeration and salt mix, add in a small amount of eggs, leave them to soak for a few minutes in the salt mix, and then begin aeration. This helps to hydrate the eggs and increases the hatch rate considerably. Use gentle aeration to ensure the eggs are constantly in motion in the water column.

The only few problems arise if one buys the low quality eggs from the LFS. Some LFS don't store their BS eggs properly and end up spoiling them. In our climate, we need to ensure that their containers are air-tight and very dry.

Then there are eggs with different guaranteed hatchrates. Premium-grade eggs sourced from the USA should give hatch rates from 80% to 95%.

If all goes well the BBS should be hatching around 18 hours after aeration was started. Some people start two or more BBS hatcheries in stages so that they have BBS in constant supply. This however applies only to people that happen to breed fishes in large quantities at home. For most of us, just one hatchery is enough to produce the BBS we require.

If too much BBS is produced, you can store them in the fridge in a small plastic container filled with the brine (hatching water) and then the excess BBS. They will stay alive in there for one or two days.

When feeding BBS to the fish, use a plastic coffee-filter or a fine meshed net to catch them. Rinse them well under a running tap to wash off the salt water. Then you can feed them to the fry using a pipette or a turkey baster, whichever way works for you.

[mdm]

hi guys, any chance these brine shrimps from LFS will be contaminated?

becos last time i fed my fishes with some tubifex worms and many died after that...
i believed the worms are contaminated so i never feed my fishes with live food anymore...

[stormhawk]

Even brine shrimps can be contaminated with bacteria since some do live in marine water.

Every type of food has its pros and cons. One can say that live food will introduce diseases etc. True enough that happens every now and then, but fishes generally do better when fed with live foods.

One can similarly get the same problems when using frozen or even dried foods. If kept for too long, frozen foods can get contaminated too. Even dry foods can spoil easily in our humidity here in SG. So you can say that there is a risk in using any type of food, be it live or prepared.

As I've said previously in another forum and elsewhere, there is a risk involved in using any live foods but the pros certainly outweigh the cons, at least in my case.

You use what you think is best.

[Justikanz]

Contaminated with?

I never had fish die from feeding on live food... In fact, I tried to get life food as some of my fish have to have life food...

Be sure to wash the worms before adding them to the tank and do be careful of how you keep the worms in the tank... The sudden bioload can cause a sudden bloom in ammonia in smallish tanks...

Anyway, brine shrimp should be, if you are worried about parasites... They are swimming in salt water and you would have to tranfer them to fresh water to feed your fish... Any marine parasites will not survive in the fresh water... And fresh water parasites will not be trasnmitted through the salt water which the brine shrimp comes in...

Of course, my 2 cents only lah...

[tango]

Hi stormhawk bro,

May I know which brand of BBS eggs you buy n from which LFS?

tango

[stormhawk]

The eggs I have at home are from the NABS brand - North American Brine Shrimp. I think they are produced from Salt Lake City, Utah.

I've not seen them for sale at most LFS since mine came from friends who bought theirs direct from the US. However I think C328 sells eggs from the NABS brand.