Keeping Brine Shrimp Alive - Kindly guide me

nagukush

nagukush

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Jan 1, 2008
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Hi Friends,

I have found a source for Live Adult Brine Shrimps ( A Brine Shrimp Farm ) and I'm receiving my first, sample batch of live brine shrimps today. Just wanted to know if its possible to keep the brine shrimps alive for about 2 to 3 days. If yes, then it will be a big help if someone can kindly guide me a little on how to keep them alive.

Kindly guide me here, Friends...
Thanks and Regards
Kush
 
I'm culturing some at the moment, haven't hatched yet. I would have thought they would live a few days anyway...

Well, I know nothing, so:

Bump!
 
I hatch brineshrimp eggs in a gallon ice sun tea container by using rock salt from smart and final. You will need to add enough salt to reach a pacific gravity of about 1.020 on a hydrometer. My hatch about 24 hours and last about 4 to 5 days. You also need to supply air to the water for circulation, I use a solid plastic tube with out air stone.
 
Hi Kush. I guess these are already adult size, not hatchlings. For just a couple of days, you could put them into a 10-15 gallon tank (with salt) and feed them phytoplankton. You'll still have to use them up fast, though.. that turns into a stinky mess quite fast. I believe for a longer term, many do this outdoors in a small pond, bucket, or kiddie pool. The sunlight gives you the infusoria they need as a food source.

But... as I understand it, there's very low nutiritional value to these a day or so after they've hatched. The usual reason people grow them out would be that live food like these may stimulate new or sick fish to eat again... but there's little other value to this beyond that.
 
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I've heard / read that Adult Brine Shrimps can survive for a few days if refrigerated - is this true ? If yes, then kindly let me know / guide me on the refrigeration procedure...
 
bitbot said:
I'm culturing some at the moment, haven't hatched yet. I would have thought they would live a few days anyway...

Well, I know nothing, so:

Bump!
Click to expand...

They do, bitbot. Mine are still around 2-3 days after I've hatched them. But they are dying off already. Plus, the food value is very low by that point. But Kush is getting live adults. That makes it a little more tricky.

I'm curious now, Kush. Why are you planning to do this and what kind of fish are you feeding?
 
Don't know about refrigerating them, Kush. Seems to me they wouldn't survive very long like that. (And might make your refrigerator smelly.)

This gets in to what I was describing a little better.

Brine shrimp are easy to hatch, but a little harder to raise to adulthood than most hobbyists will bother with. Hatching instructions will certainly accompany the eggs, plus they frequently are listed with the popular brands of salt mixes (both marine mixes and the various freshwater salt mixes). I've found that getting large numbers of brine shrimp to reach adulthood is simple: do it outdoors! You will need a large shallow container, such as a kiddie swimming pool. I use rectangular, black, plastic containers which are marketed as lotus planters or cement mixing tubs, depending on where I shop. They can hold about 25 U.S. gallons (~90 liters). I usually dump whatever leftover brine shrimp culture water I have indoors from my winter cultures into one of these containers and place it in my garden in springtime, where it will get direct sun for the entire day. If necessary, I will top it off with additional salt water, but because my old culture water has some brine shrimp and plenty of unhatched eggs, I don't need to add any eggs. In a couple weeks, this container will be teaming with brine shrimp without any human intervention. Surprisingly, I normally don't need to add additional salt, even though the container overflows from rainfall fairly often.
Click to expand...

That's from here: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/live_foods.php

This tells how someone else does this: http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Pegasus_Brine_Shrimp.html
 
Hi there !

Thanks a lot for the replies and for caring. I plan to feed them to my Frontosas and mainly brichardis. I just want to increase their food variety and plan to bring them in to breeding condition. Moreover the Brine Shrimp farm belongs to one of my friend and so I have been promised regular live brine shrimps at a very cheap price. I've also heard that adult brine shrimps are high in protein and a very good food for carnivores - true?

BTW, the shrimps have to travel for about 8 hours to reach me - any ideas if they'll make it ?

Kindly guide me...
 
Not what I've heard.. you'd want newly hatched BBS for the fry. And many people "gut load" those with green water/phytoplankton to increase their nutritional content, which drops down fast once the baby shrimp have consumed their own yolk sacs. The adult shrimp might stimulate your adult fish to breed, but it's not a great food source.
 
Thanks again for the kind reply and for guiding me. Really grateful - thanks a lot for caring...

Also, wanted to ask if the Brine Shrimps might make it after the 8 hour travel ?
 
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