Decapsulated Brineshrimp Eggs

[gweesm1]

Hi all,

For those who are facing difficulties hatching you Brineshrimp eggs you can try to decapsulate them before hatching. The steps are as follows: -

Steps
Hydrate your brine shrimp eggs (The quantity is about 1 film canister) in tap water (I used about 600-800ml of water) for 1 hour.

Pour in 1 cup of unscented household bleach. (The recommended dosage from some WebPages is 1 part water, 1 part bleach) Continue to aerate them until the eggs turn white then to orange. (Within 10 minutes)

Pour the eggs into a net and rinse them thoroughly with tap water (90% of the eggs turn orange). Then mix the eggs with 2 to 3 tablespoon of white vinegar and stir them for about 1 minute.

Rinse them again with tap water until there is no smell.

The last step is quite important, in order to store the eggs for future use, you will need to dehydrate them. To dehydrate them, you prepare super concentrated salt water and soak you eggs in them. Store them in the fridge and hatch as normal.

Why decapsulate the eggs?

According to www.brineshrimpdirect.com Decapsulating Brineshrimp eggs will improve hatch rate. The eggs shells are no longer there and make it easier for the brine shrimp to hatch. Even if the eggs don’t hatch, they are still edible. It is supposed to be more nutritious as not much energy is used for hatching.

I personally had tried with the premium grade and like it very much not because of the hatch rate (hatch rate has always been good), but no more egg shells in the tank. Anyone interested to see how I do decapsulate the eggs can drop me a PM, I will decapsulate another batch in a week time. By the way, I am still very interested to try it on a lower grade brine shrimp eggs if anyone has some to spare. (All my eggs are Premiums) I would like to see if decapsulating really improves hatch rate.

Regards,
Siameng

[timebomb]

I have a few film containers of low-grade brine shrimp eggs for you to experiment but there's a condition. You have to let me take the pictures of how you do it. I think your decapsulation of the eggs is very interesting and deserves a webpage all by itself. If you let me photograph the whole process, I will give you the low-grade eggs. Your contribution to the webpage would be acknowledged, of course.

Loh K L

[kc]

My problem is not hatching but separating the eggs from them bbs. I found that about half the eggs sinked with some semi floating together with the bbs. Is it because of the water density ? I'm now trying out with double the salt amount of 1 tablespoon (maybe my tablespoon is too small).

[gweesm1]

Reply to Loh
No problem. I can actually decapsulate the eggs at your place. The lighting at you place is better. You will need to take a photograph of the eggs after 1 day of storing of decapsulate eggs in the super concentrated brine water, the eggs will turn from orange to brown as the water was drawn out from the eggs. (then you try to hatch them, see if the hatch rate improves)

Reply to KC
That’s the same problem I am facing, I am very happy with the hatch rate, but the sinking eggshell is bothering me. So I decided to decap the eggs, no more egg shell. However if you want to solve your problem without decapsulating the brine shrimp eggs, you can try other type of hatchery. According to Loh, it is the container, the hatchery we use can’t effectively trap most of the brine shrimp egg shell. He recommended me to try a type of cooking oil container. The more conical the hatchery, the more eggshell trap.

For all to know
There was one year (I can’t remember which) the Brineshrimp supply was low and the price of Brineshrimp went sky high. Hobbyists had no choice but to turn to lower grade Brineshrimp eggs. To increase the hatch rate, they decap the eggs before hatching.

Please take note that the decapsulated brine shrimp eggs for sales in most websites are the non-hatching type. Regardless how long you aerate them, they will not hatch. It is supposed to be fed as dry food. I supposed they used eggs of poor hatch rate or eggs that are left for a long time to decapsulate, or else it will not be cheaper than the non process eggs!

I had come across decapsulated egg, which is the hatching type, it comes in gel form. The eggs are preserved in gel and pack like toothpaste. (I can’t remember the brand and which website is selling them)


Out of topic
Just for your information, Brine shrimps are not only found in Utah, San Francisco has them as well (small Brineshrimp, more nutritious, but about 20%-30% more expensive). Bohai in China has them too. I heard of Iranian Brineshrimp being dual sex. (don’t know how true, didn’t really verify). There are lots of other places have them.

There is also fresh water Brineshrimp. Of course they will not be called brine shrimp if they live in fresh water, they are called the fairy shrimp. So far I had not found any suppliers commercially harvest them for sale. I will definitely buy the fresh water strain if they are available for sale. Imagine, no more salt and the best thing about fresh water strain, they live longer in the raising trays!

I must have given you guys impression that I seems more interested in Brineshrimp than Killes!!??

Siameng

[kc]

I just read an article on bbs from a Pet magazine at my friend place. It's not a marine creature but come from inland saltwater lake. According to the article, you can hatch them without salt if you intend to feed them to your fish right away.

[Eric Yeo]

Wow, Siameng, that is great with your decapsulated bbs recipe to share, I've been decapsulated my bbs for more than a year now. I used Sodium Hydroxide (solution) instead of vinegar, but the problem with Sodium Hydroxide (solid) you need Pollution Control Dept's approval in order to buy them. Sodium Hydroxide Solution (approved by PCD) can be bought over the counter at Sino Chemical. My method might not be acurate because Sodium Hydroxide is in liquid form, what I need is solid.
Anyway my bbs came from India, I bought a bottle (270g) for S$30 from one of the Betta member, hatch rate 60-70%, that is why I need to decapsulated them. Yes my bbs decapsulated eggs hatched.
My method came from University of Forida, Fishery Dept. Can't remember their website address, if you all interested I can scan and email to you, but I still prefer Siameng method no need those Pollution Control's approval.

[gweesm1]

KC:
As for hatching using fresh water, I don’t think it is a good idea. I know aquarist will usually aerate their brineshrimps eggs for more than 24 hours before feeding BBS to fish. The reason being not all eggs hatch at the same time. There might be some eggs hatched at the 16th hour and some at the 30th hour. Just imagine if fresh water is used instead of salt water (assuming they hatch in fresh water), will the BBS hatched at the 16th hour survive till 30th hour or even 24th (the moment you collect them for feeding) I doubt so.

The fairy shrimp however, naturally occurring in fresh water holes will survive of course. But we should not rule out the possibility that these fairy shrimp could be a result of evolution. Who know the eggs were blown from inland salt-water lake to fresh water holes and over years they evolve into the fresh water strain for survival. (This is just a guess, by me) But this doesn’t mean that the eggs from the salt-water lake can survive fresh water over a period of time, as they are not exposed to the salt-water treatment before. (Loh is good in the theory of evolution) I remember certain Nothobranchius Korthasae strain eggs need not go through the dry incubation as they live in water, which are more permanent. This is Mother Nature doing her works. (Hi Loh, can you move the discussion on hatching brine shrimp using fresh water to a new topic? Its seems out of topic here.)

Eric
Thanks, I had read the article before.

Siameng

[gweesm1]

Sorry all

Some correction (in brackets)

“But this doesn’t mean that the eggs from the salt-water lake can survive fresh water over a period of time, as they are not exposed to the (salt-water) treatment before.”

Should be

“But this doesn’t mean that the eggs from the salt-water lake can survive fresh water over a period of time, as they are not exposed to the (fresh water) treatment before.”