samstersam Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 I can't see why brine shrimp can't live in a refugium and get sucked out a little at a time to the main tank like copepods do.... http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec...002/breeder.htm this is where i got the information... Brine shrimp prefer a salinity of 30-35 (1.022-1.026 specific gravity) and can live in fresh water for about 5 hours before they die. hmm. my salinity is 1.025 sounds about right.. Artemia are non-selective filter feeders and therefore will ingest a wide range of foods. The main criteria for food selection are particle size, digestibility, and nutrient levels. (Dobbeleir, 1980) Possibly the best foods for Artemia are live microalgae such as Nannochloropsis, Tetraselmis, Isochrysis, and Pavlova (see home phytoplankton culture). hmm, i feed my fuge and main tank a bit of DT's every other day... anyone ever drop brine shrimp eggs in a refugium and see what happens? The hatched eggs shouldn't be much of a pollution problem, probably get eaten by the pods and detrivores i have in the fuge anyway...besides some people actually toss in frozen meaty cubes to feed the fuge once in a while! comments? Quote Link to comment
Crakeur Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 I thought brine shrimp needed a higher salinity and a different water temp but why not give it a try with a small amount of live brine. see if they live. If so, they will probably multiply on their own. Quote Link to comment
skeletor Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 keeping the eggs in the fuge until they hatch might be a challenge. -skeletor- Quote Link to comment
offsprg01 Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 just use one of those cheepy breader nets from wally world. Quote Link to comment
samstersam Posted June 27, 2003 Author Share Posted June 27, 2003 Originally posted by skeletor keeping the eggs in the fuge until they hatch might be a challenge. -skeletor- why do u say that? the Aquafuge by CPR has a very very low water flow (it's intended design...) So i drop a bunch of eggs in there. Stuff in the fuge might eat some of the eggs, but some might live and hatch, providing more food. I think it could be the simplest way to feed artemia. Instead of using a separate hatchery, just use the fuge! Drop in a few eggs once in a while... i might try it..but i need some comments from more experience people... the article from advancedaquarist (see my starter thread above) states conditions such as salinity, ph and temperature and my fuge matches those conditions... Quote Link to comment
samstersam Posted June 27, 2003 Author Share Posted June 27, 2003 I'm hoping some "sooper-dooper know it all" (no offense intended, on the contrary i say with honest respect) that has had years of reef keeping experience or someone with marine biological background can come in and give some opinions... my thoughts are as long as u don't dump in a TON of brine shrimp eggs and screw up the stability of your system, the eggs will either get a) eaten (good for the organisms in my sand bed in my fuge anyway) hatch and get eaten (good for zooplankton feeders) c) hatch and grow a bit and get eaten (good for my green chromis and ocellaris clown, Mr. bob (who is still in rehab from annoying parasites) d) hatch and grow and reproduce (although highly unlikely) or finally e) decay, in which case isn't a calamity because 10 eggs decaying is like probably one GSP (single) dying and the system can handle anyway... As for the proper salinity for hatching eggs, perhaps my 1.025 salinity isn't the OPTIMAL but at least some will hatch in these conditions... As far as food for artemia, i feed DT's and my fuge has tons of various macro/micro algae all over the place... so...any experts out there with an opinion on the general idea of this ? specifically, as an experiment how many eggs should i dump into the fuge without fear of messing up the stability of my system? (i'm thinking in terms of when i started with DT...i know that i started with a fraction of the dosage and gradually increased it keeping an eye out for water parameters) but at least with DT's i knew the general dosage...with this "brine-shrimp" idea, I need a general ballpark figure...here are my parameters (feel free to comment on anything u feel that i could improve in my system too!!) I have a 15 gallon nano that houses a wellsophia brain, torch, gsp's (placed on a piece of easy to remove rock HEHEHE...i know these things are weeds), shrooms, zoos, an acro frag (which has been GROWING without browning out!! under PC lights no less!),and a candycane. i have a medium aquafuge hanging in the back with a 100 watt heater, and i barely squeezed in a micro-chiller on an aquaclear mini that I insulated with styrofoam . water paramters are 0 for all the usual stuff, ph is 8.2 salinity is 1.025, calc 420-430, alk 10 dkh, and i drip kalkwasser nightly as evaporation replacement. i have 130 watts of PC lighting into the 15 gallon which has a sand bed of about 2-4 inches in various places which makes the lowest coral on the sand bed around 10-8 inches from the light. fish live stock consist of a green chromis (yet to be named..someone help!) and Mr. bob the clownfish who is still in the 10 gallon rehab center for possible parasites, dried food acclimation, and the general "LFS to home shipping stress"... Quote Link to comment
Brianc_4 Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 I recently hatched some brine shrimp in a little DYI hatchery, I too was looking at my refugium and thinking about it. I've hatched eggs at a variety of different salinitys, and you will always get some hatching but the percentage may be lower. The same goes for temp,even different sources will tell you different temps ranging from high 70s to high 80s, I've found about 83-85 seems to be optimal. The thing that made me abandon trying it is that you always aerate your water in a hatchery to keep the eggs suspended, the ones that do sink do not hatch, I didn't want to add an airstone to my refugium due to all the microbubbles that would be in my tank. I also have smelled the foul odor of neglected cysts and unhatched eggs, and there really isn't much of a way to get that crap out of a jungle of macro. I suppose you could try a very small amount of eggs, like 1/16th of a teaspoon without worry of fouling your tank, but I do'nt think this will produce very many shrimp. It might be worth a try out of curiousity. If you do, please post your results. Good luck;) Quote Link to comment
MrKrispy Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 bumping this: any updates on the success/failure of throwing eggs in the fuge??? Quote Link to comment
tinyreef Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 funny you should bring this up. i just posted a similar inquiry over at shorgy's food forum regarding this continuous bbs hatcher. there were some older threads i didn't find but were later linked. i'm still wary about it. much of what brian mentioned does apply so a straight dumping into a fuge isn't going to work imo. altho the process of this auto feeder-thingy is a little sketchy too. hmmm... Quote Link to comment
Spencerx Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 i have the continuous bbs hatcher and i hated it because it was super ugly in the tank, took up alot of room, the airline always came off, and it needed to be cleaned alot. An alternative is to take a film canister and poke a hole in the lid, fill with water and eggs and then put in tank with the hole up. When the eggs hatch the BS are attracted to light, thus swimming out of the hole. Quote Link to comment
Haris Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 How about introducing them to the fuge after they hatch Quote Link to comment
Oldsalt01 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 On 6/27/2003 at 11:01 AM, Crakeur said: I thought brine shrimp needed a higher salinity and a different water temp but why not give it a try with a small amount of live brine. see if they live. If so, they will probably multiply on their own. Not necessarilly. I once found them living in a freshwater pond in Canada, 200 miles from the ocean. Of course, the cow urine may have contributed to some salinity, lol. Quote Link to comment
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