Bbs

[Hondataeg6]

How do you guys separate the newly hatch baby brine when you're ready to feed them off??? Without getting all the egg shells in the drys tank?

Thanks in advance

[Fishman43]

I hatch in inverted 1 liter soda water bottles (poland spring) because they have the perfect taper in the bottle neck. I use a hard plastic airline to keep the bubble tip in the bottom.

In regards to your question. I remove the air line from the bottle and let it sit for ~10 minutes while I get started on some other fish room chores. The hatched shrimp drift to the bottom of the hatcher and the egg shells float to the top. I gently pick up the bottle and pour off the egg shells into a repurposed yogurt container, then pour off the rest of the water with the hatched shrimp into my shrimp filter (I use a reusable plastic & cloth coffee filter available at your grocery store by the coffee). If you pour carefully the unhatched eggs stay in the bottom while the shrimp pour off as well.

I let the bbs drain into the yogurt container until the water is mostly out of them then pour the drained water back into the hatcher for the next batch. Then I add some fresh water to the hatched shrimp to rinse them and let that drain off before I rinse them into a jar of fresh water to feed out. If you let them sit in the fresh water jar for a few minutes the shrimp will again drift to the bottom of the jar and any remaining shells will float to the top. I feed out with a turkey baster so it is easy to suck the shrimp up and leave the shells behind.

With all of that being said. Other than the ugly floating shells building up around the top of your tanks water line, I have never had an issue with fish loss that I could atribute to eating brine shrimp shells and I used to raise some pretty small fry.

[Virginia ranchu]

I hatch my bbs in an inverted soda bottle (similar procedure to fishman). I remove the airline and suck the bbs, and some egg shells, from the neck of the bottle with a turkey baster. I then squirt the baster into a shallow rectangular plastic food container with fresh water. I have an adjustable desk lamp that I position over one corner of the food container. The bbs will move toward the light, and can easily be sucked up with the turkey baster leaving the shells behind.


Rob

[Hondataeg6]

Has anyone ever used one of these before. Looks to be to good to be true...

http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c9/Hatchery-Dish-p183.html

[kendal]

Has anyone ever used one of these before. Looks to be to good to be true...

http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c9/Hatchery-Dish-p183.html

i have one. pretty smart little design. it actual does everything they claim, however it only does a small amount at a time. you cannot de large feedings to many fish with a singe hatchery as each will only hatch about 1/8th teaspoon eggs max at a time (recommendation is more like 1/16). i will verify the "serving size" tonight and will take some pictures tonight.

check out David's blog (goldfishgarage.com) for a more practical solution explained for larger quantities of BBS. but try not to look at the masthead too long—it's coolness can be overwhelming at times and you may not get to the content (@Ichthius LOL)

[Ichthius]

See pictures here:
http://goldfishgarage.blogspot.com/2010/09/brine-shrimp-cone.html

Text:
The cones are made from crystal sprains 1.25 liter soda water bottles. They have a very steep neck making am ideal hatching come. With the bottoms cut off they are 1 liter. I use one liter water, one tablespoon salt and one tablespoon cysts with a pinch of sodium bicarbonate. The simple cone is used to hatch. I let it settle. Squeeze it so the floating shells overflow. Then I pour of as ouch water as possible leaving the shrimp and the sinking shells. I then refill with supersaturated water from the tap. This is done by blending hot and cold water till it is milky with gases. This floats the sunk shells. I squeeze the container again after every thing has floated. Then input it into the collection cone which has a bulkhead out the bottom for the final collection through a 105 micron sieve. Total time spent is about 5 minutes collecting. One minute to reset the cone and a few to feed. 10 minutes a day for live food. It bad. All fish get brine when I'm hatching. Large fish will eat bbs (baby brine shrimp) including large Ranchu and even 14 inch tanganyikan tilapia.

[kendal]

Has anyone ever used one of these before. Looks to be to good to be true...

http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c9/Hatchery-Dish-p183.html

see attached pics.

basically how it works is the eggs are held in the outer ring and the BBS swim to the inside attracted to the light and lifted out with the strainer cup. no aeration is needed because the water is so shallow. it does not hold too many eggs an so is really not suitable for growing out a batch of fry. if you had 10 fry and were around all day it is really convenient to feed 50fresh BBS every 30 minutes.

it is a brilliant design, but more suited to raising 10 dainty sea horses than 1,000 greedy goldfish.

i bought it on a whim and out of curiosity. it comes with a bottle of BS eggs which offsets the cost.

[BruceP]

Sounds like I need to order one just to use as a pattern for a larger one.. LOL... Maybe I could use a hubcap from a 56 Olds... >:)

[Hondataeg6]

Sounds like I need to order one just to use as a pattern for a larger one.. LOL... Maybe I could use a hubcap from a 56 Olds... >:)

thats what i was thinking, the way i see it: as the shrimp hatches it goes under the first rim, over the second and under the third and finally over the collection cup, to where the main light is

[Hondataeg6]

so if someone was to duplicate this on a bigger scale do you think it would need aeration??? and a heat source??? im guessing it would as the water wouldnt be as shallow anymore, i thinl thats why they never made a bigger one?

[kendal]

so if someone was to duplicate this on a bigger scale do you think it would need aeration??? and a heat source??? im guessing it would as the water wouldnt be as shallow anymore, i thinl thats why they never made a bigger one?

if someone was to duplicate this on a larger scale they would have to be crazy. the inverted water bottle is just too easy. the shells are a pain, but the energy invested in trying to get around it probably is not worth it.

[Hondataeg6]

if someone was to duplicate this on a larger scale they would have to be crazy. the inverted water bottle is just too easy. the shells are a pain, but the energy invested in trying to get around it probably is not worth it.

Yeah... Youre probably right, the inverted bottle works great, separating the shells its what frustrates me...

[kendal]

two others.

the black one is pretty simple version of the DIY version with a plastic bottle, but a little nicer looking. it has two valves and tubing. you hatch the eggs, let it sit for 10 minutes, the bleed off brine shrimp through valve, rinse and repeat. these are about $14 on ebay. thinking of getting two—one for hatching and one for storing and gut-loading the BBS until they are eaten. they certainly look cleaner and more stable than the DIY version. the question would be how well does the bleed valve work. anyone seen or own one of these?

the one with Japanese on the box...well i have no clue how this one works. the English translation made less sense then the Japanese which i don't read at all. supposedly it separates the egg shells.