Keeping Adult or Newly Hatched Brine Shrimp (BS) Alive

[celticfish]

Hi all,

i have a question on how to keep brine shrimp alive. the local LFS sells them in a fix volume and i am unable to feed them all in one go. so i'm trying to find ways to keep them a live for a couple of days. i have tried a simple airstone and jar but a significant portion (about 60-70%) just die on me the next day.

also,

1. if i need to add water volume, how should i go about it? i don't know the salinity level of the pack they come in.

2. is there a method to grow them myself from eggs? what can/should i feed them?

any others tips or methods would be greatly appreciated.
thanks people!!!

[Cacatuoides]

Why don't you try hatching your own BBS? You can control the amount according to the number of fishes you have and it'll probably last a few days for feeding.....

[celticfish]

thanks for the suggestion caca.

however, i did read somewhere that the naupuli lose quite a significant amount of protien in about 24 hrs. which is why all bbs advocate strongly suggest feeding with freshly hatch naupuli.

so to mitigate the reduced protiens (from absorbtion of the egg sac) they feed the bbs stuff like spirulina powder to beef them up again.

then again maybe a daphnia or cyclops culture might be the answer here.
hops someone replies...

p.s. i'm looking into this as most literture suggest that south american dwarf cichilds reach their full potential with varied and frequent feedings of crustaceans.

[Biotopeshop]

thanks for the suggestion caca.

however, i did read somewhere that the naupuli lose quite a significant amount of protien in about 24 hrs. which is why all bbs advocate strongly suggest feeding with freshly hatch naupuli.

so to mitigate the reduced protiens (from absorbtion of the egg sac) they feed the bbs stuff like spirulina powder to beef them up again.

then again maybe a daphnia or cyclops culture might be the answer here.
hops someone replies...

p.s. i'm looking into this as most literture suggest that south american dwarf cichilds reach their full potential with varied and frequent feedings of crustaceans.

How long do you want to stretch your feed? We have customers that freeze them into ice cubes when they get home. Thereinafter, a few cubes a day.

Cheers

[celticfish]

now why didn't that occur to me...
thanks thio!

[Justikanz]

But do note that the solution in comes in is brine... try to freeze them in fresh wate instead, in case you forgotten and pop in the whole frozen cube directly into the tank...

[celticfish]

yes, that would be good for water quality...
on a side note, i read from website that someone kept his BS in the fridge.
apparently this reduces their matebolic rate hence oxygen requirement.
i think i will also give this method a try and maybe post an update on this.

But do note that the solution in comes in is brine... try to freeze them in fresh wate instead, in case you forgotten and pop in the whole frozen cube directly into the tank...

[aqualover]

perhaps searching for info on raising sea monkeys would help

http://www.discoverthis.com/sea-monk...tructions.html
http://h.webring.com/hub?ring=seamonkeys
http://www.seamonkeymania.com/sea-monkey-raise.html

[Sweet Angel]

If we freeze BBS in fridge, for how long we still allow to use it for fish food...? Months ok?
Won't they lose their nutrition after long time frozen?
Is it ok to feed frozen BBS to guppy babies too...?