Baby Brine Shrimp

[hobgoblin]

Hi,

I am experimenting with keeping BBS in the fridge. A small tray, with aged water level at 2cm is used. It consists of 50% saline water, and the remaining aged water. The newly hatched BBS were filtered off from the hatchey, and placed in this tray. I think the fridge is set to less than 10 DegC.

Any opinions on this, especially regarding the nutritional vaule of the BBS? I hope I'm keeping it at a cold-enough environment to reduce their metabolic rate.

Drew

[felixe]

IME, mine were lasted their life about three days(!) in the refrigerator.
I didn't checked what the temperature was, but maybe 6~8Celcius in my guess.
When they in refrigerator they looked like dead, but every time I bring them back
they swam even though not so actively like before... (... hibernation?)
I usually store them in a clear plastic cups, wash them by exchanging water
three or four times during the storing.
Actually, the nutrients thing were not my concern, but frys looked fine.
The orange color of BBS's egg sac remained as it was, before I feed them all.
As they are in dead, the water getting more hazy, and stink of that you've never been experienced...

[keehoe]

Hi, 2cm of water seems too thick. The BBS wouldn't last long with so much water. I normally kept them with only 1cm or less. Last at least 3days. Temperature 10c should be fine.

[hobgoblin]

I think I'll drain some of the water as I draw them out for feeding. Is BBS most nutritious when it just hatched? How about the intemediary stage of its development (goes without saying that they must be fed for growth)? How about adult brine shrimp with egg sacs?

Drew

[stormhawk]

The nauplii remain nutritious for several hours after hatching, after which they undergo the first moult and form a feeding mouth. This is when they become very low in nutrition. At this stage, feeding them with particulate foods would be required to enrich them.

[TyroneGenade]

IME bbs last for several days in the fridge. Their metabolisms pretty much shut down while in the fridge (which is normally about 4°C), this means their nutrional content is mostly the same as when they went in. If you refridgerate them just after hatching (about 24-36 hrs after wetting) then they should be at about maximum nutrition.

Regards

[keehoe]

Drew, that depends on what fish and stage of developement your fish is at. New born fry, need more fat and also due to their small mouth, new born BBS is best. After first 2 weeks, you might want to feed them enrich 3 days old BBS to boost up their survival rate (I found that BBS enriched with spirulina seems build up good health). But do mix with new born BBS. As they still require a lot of fat. Once it reach 3 week, can consider feeding them enriched adult brine shrimp.

I have a feeling that, adult male killies need more spirulina and female killies need more fat as they need to produce egg.

[nonamethefish]

I did an experiment with this also and it works quite well. They really slow down and maybe "hop" once every 2-3 seconds.

BTw, can you see with your eyes the size diff between stage 1 and stage 2 BBS?

[stormhawk]

Stage I newly hatched nauplii are very compact in form, like a little diamond-shaped animal with two "wings".

Stage II moulted nauplii are somewhat elongated in form, like a thin kite-shaped animal with two "wings".

Both stages can be seen with the naked eye or with the help of a magnifying glass.

Kee Hoe, thats right. Female killies need a little more protein or fat-rich foods to produce more eggs.

[hobgoblin]

I tried feeding small meal worms, but I couldn't get my N'sukka to feed on the surface. These meal worms float- I should have thought of this problem before buying them.

Jianyanng: now I know what you mean by 'fresh' tubifex. I waited for the live food to arrive at C328. Maybe not that fresh, but better than what I get at my LFS (around my housing estate).

Regarding the BBS, I will keep them in the fridge from now on and supplementing it with a bit of spirulina. Has anyone been successful with culturing Daphnia? Or other sort of live food culture such as microworms, vinegar eels etc?

Well, I'd reccomend Tropica's Granulate (check link, it's available here in bottle form) as a backup food.
http://www.tropical.com.pl/EN/foods/...ical-gran.html
My killies seem to only devour it voraciously, not so much luck with other brands.

Also, I extend my gratitude to those in Killie.com. Over these 3+ months since I became a member, I've learn a lot from you guys. I guess I've got quite a few misconceptions regarding fishkeeping, especially when I started 2 years ago without guidance.

I've disgress from the original topic. Perhaps we should have an acknowledgement and appreciation section. For myself, I feel that I need to remember the people that helped me along, lest I take othes' help for granted.

Thanks,
Drew

[stormhawk]

Haha, about time you got to know what "fresh" means. If they're red and wriggling like mad then they're really fresh.

About the BBS, I've kept them in a small clear plastic container with very little water and stored it in the fridge. They lasted up to 3 days in such conditions. Usually by the 3rd day most, if not all would have moulted to the Stage II form. A little pinch of spirulina powder dissolved in a cup of water would be sufficient to feed these little critters. The spirulina cloud should clear by which the BBS would have fully fed themselves on the algae.

Just a note, don't enrich them when they're newly hatched. Do it ONLY if the BBS has moulted to Stage II, that is, when they have formed their mouthparts to begin feeding.

I had a thriving microworm culture not long ago but it crashed and gave off a nasty smell. I still have the vinegar eels. Although they're not the easiest live food to harvest, they are by far the easiest live food to culture.

The local "daphnia" that we have been getting is actually a species of Moina, or more exactly, Moina micrura. These are smaller relatives of the much larger Daphnia species. Culturing them in our local weather is not exactly an easy job. It works for those with ability to obtain green water on a regular basis. Easiest and cleanest food to feed these critters. Only problem is that these Moina cultures have a low production capability. We're better off buying live "daphnia" in bags.

In the farms they're cultivated in ponds that are "enriched" with chicken droppings. The daphnia feed on the bacteria that is generated by the rotting chicken poop. In the past, daphnia was cultivated by using pig's droppings.

[hobgoblin]

So far I feed the N'sukka with whatever flies that I kind find, and even ants (this is besides the tubifex which they get twice a day). They are always eating all the time, if not meaty food stuff, it'll be spirulina flakes.

If I go for a constant supply of daphnia, it'll burn a hole in my pocket. They just don't take too well to frozen food. They will just eat a few mouthfull, and the rest is left to waste away.

[stormhawk]

The regular daphnia available at some LFS locally in SG is really meant for smaller fish. Larger fish like the gardneris usually don't get much nutrition from the daphnia. You'd need to feed alot for them to get a mouthful per fish. They're better off with larger foods like tubifex worms.

As for fry, I've found no better food than the locally available "daphnia" aka Moina micrura, which I mentioned in the earlier post.

I get faster growth rates for fry which are fed on this food item rather than newly hatched BBS. Since they actually survive in freshwater, they remain alive in the fry container for a longer period of time as compared to newly hatched BBS which die off within a few hours after being added to the fry containers. The longer survival period of the daphnia in freshwater actually allows the fry to continuously feed on them over a period of time, thus maximising their nutrition value for the fry. This is the reason why I get a better growth rate when I feed fry with daphnia as compared to BBS.

[promethean_spark]

My n'sukka gladly eat flake food, though they mostly get fed frozen brine shrimp and frozen bloodworms. I have some thriving in a 55 with adult angelfish that only get fed flake. Perhaps my strain has been domesticated longer or something.

It is true that you need to fertilize water outside to generate the infusoria needed to support daphnia. I once left a small tub outside that contained the droppings of a snake and never got around to cleaning it. After filling with rainwater it turned solid green, so I poured off the water into a large tub that I hold plant trimmings in, and now that tub is teeming with cyclops, daphnia, and other small creatures that I can't identify. I'll be hatching SJO fry in a few days and will try hatching them in the aged rainwater from this tub (complete with microlife).