Hatching Brine Shrimp Eggs

by Paul Velasco

NOTE: This is a thread pulled from the CAAS web forum with added notes to clarify some instructions. Find the original topic on the CAAS Forum

This was orignally posted on the forum to give others a simple method to hatch Brine Shrimp Eggs for feeding fry. Many times talking with members I hear that hatching brine shrimp eggs is the most diffcult aspect of breeding fish. This is what keeps many of us from being successful breeders. Honestly, I have never had problems! This is a tried and true method I have been using for a number of years. If this does not work either the eggs are bad or the 'Fish Keeper'. I am going to assume it is the eggs, so purchase more. Enjoy the article...

Try this guy, I use his set-up with much success.

Aquabid seller for Brine Shrimp hatchers

With this set-up all you need to do is supply two one-liter plastic bottles and an air source. This was a nice set-up intitally but I found that it was difficult to clean. The 'hatcher' was replaced with a large specimen container, identical to the ones you see at the LFS. They are clear plastic containers which hang off the lip of the tank. Typically they are used at the LFS to transport fish when they bag them for sale. The large size will hold two one liter water bottles perfectly. Enough baby brine shrimp (BBS) can be made to supply a small hobby hatchery for two days or to rotate bottles as necessary.

Water Recipe-

1. To 2 liters of water add 8 Tablespoons of Un-Iodized Salt. Cheapest salt is at Lowe's in the water softener section. 50# for like $10-$15, depending on brand. Next would be Rock Salt or Ice cream Salt at Grocery store. The most expensive is Kosher salt.
2. 1/4 Tablespoon of Baking Soda
3. 1 Tablespoon of Epsom Salt (Eckerds)
4. Couple drops of Turbo Calcium (Not necessary)

NOTE: Easiest, most expensive, is to use synthetic sea salts like Instant Ocean. 4 Tablespoons in 2 liters of water

Since the writing of this post I have changed procedures somewhat on my water recipe. One batch of water is now 5 gallons. This is enough water for one month of BBS production. There is no more measuring amounts into the recipe! Now measurements are made with a 12 oz cup. Two scoops of Salt and 1/2 scoop of Epsoma. This mixture is bubbled continuously with air. Baking soda is added at the time of hatching, one small pinch. No need for calcuim as I have not seen any increase or decrease with or without this component. This process takes all of 5 minutes a month, mostly time for the bucket to fill with water. If I need BBS water I just scoop a container into the bucket and get what is needed. Again, I would not use the 'Instant Salts' for hatching BBS, just too much work. Easy peasy...

Hatcher set-up-

1. Either place this set-up in a tank that is at 82°F or shine an incandescent desk lamp at it. The best is the in tank method, you will get a more consistent hatch time (ca~ 24hrs) becasue of the more consistent temperature.
2. Add airline and bubble at a high rate. No air-stone, makes eggs float to top and attach to hatcher. I have lost up to 50% of the eggs because they attached to the bottle. The larger the bubbles the less likely the eggs will stick to the sides.
3. Use 1/2 - 1 Tablespoon of eggs per liter of water. Any more than that is just a waste of eggs.
4. Wait 16-24 hrs for eggs to hatch. The cooler the water the more time it will take for the eggs to hatch. Depending on temperature the time should be adjusted to acheive the desired result, maximum hatching of the eggs.

Getting baby brine shrimp from hatcher -

1. Turn off Air
2. Turn off light
3. Wait about 5-10 minutes for the egg cases and BBS to segregate. The egg cases will float to the top. The BBS will be orange in color and start to settle to the bottom of the container. If you do not see an orange color at the bottom; either the eggs have not hatched so continue aeration or the eggs are junk and throw them out. This will be a judgement call as too which option is preferred.
4. With an air-line or plastic tube, siphon the bottom portion into a brine shrimp net, these are the baby brine shrimp. The egg cases will float on top, be careful not to harvest to many of the cases. Rinsing the harvested BBS is not necessary at this point. Many of the smaller BBS are lost during the rinsing process as they are flushed through the openings of the net. Best practice is to let the net sit in tank water for a few mintues to dilute the salt.

Some important things -

• Buy eggs from a good on-line source. Those eggs at the pet store are not that great. Some sources for eggs are brineshrimpdirect.com and aquabid. Others will chime in on some sources of eggs.
• Get the highest % hatch rate you can afford. This by far will save you lots of headaches. I have been using 85% with good success.
• Store eggs in refrigerator after opening. Take what you need for a weeks worth of hatching and keep the bulk of the eggs in the freezer or refrigerator.

Who decaps their eggs? Had a shelling incident and decided to start. Good success with this method but is really time consuming. (This will be another article)

Again, hatching brine shrimp is not difficult. Start with good quality eggs, this by far is the most important item in this method. Junk eggs will produce junk results. Do not let 'Hatching BBS' keep you from being a fish breeder.