Bbs Feeding Fry

[mattlee]

i have had a batch of fry from my corys and have bought them some baby brine shrimp. to hatch you need to add salt, bubbles and light, but when hatched and ready to feed how do you do it? will the salt in the water the shrimp are in have an effect on the fry as i know corys dont do salt very well. i watched a guy on youtube make his own hatchery then just syringe the shrimp out and feed the fish direct with the water the shrimp were hatched in, can i do this?

 

[StrontiumDog]

Hi mattlee,

You have passed them through some filter paper, then you need to rinse the shrimp in some tank water. I used them a few years back when
my neon dwarf gouramis decided too breed, and to be honest I find hatching and feeding BBS to be a right royal pain in the bum.

Last week I bought a culture of microworms off ebay for £1.98, ordered on sunday came tuesday, plus £1.79 for some readybrex from asda and a couple of plastic containers from a pound shop ordered. The very next day I was able to feed these to my newly hatched betta fry and my cory fry with ease. Alot less hastle than BBS, and I don't know why I've never used them before.

Pm me if you need the sellers link.

Edit: With clear instructions included.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi mattlee

I thought I remembered one of our members having a problem with bbs, but it turned out that he ruled that out as the cause of his trouble. Nevertheless, he was rinsing it to get rid of the salt.

I tend to agree with StrontiumDog. Hatching bbs seems like a lot of work for the length of time they are of benefit to the fry. As soon as they hatch the quality of the nutrition they provide begins to decrease. I never thought it was worth the bother. You can get decapsulated brine shrimp eggs and these are easy to feed and have all the nutrition of freshly hatched bbs.

Microworms are excellent food too, and it's easy to keep a culture going even when you don't have tiny fry.

 

[mattlee]

Hi mattlee

I thought I remembered one of our members having a problem with bbs, but it turned out that he ruled that out as the cause of his trouble. Nevertheless, he was rinsing it to get rid of the salt.

I tend to agree with StrontiumDog. Hatching bbs seems like a lot of work for the length of time they are of benefit to the fry. As soon as they hatch the quality of the nutrition they provide begins to decrease. I never thought it was worth the bother. You can get decapsulated brine shrimp eggs and these are easy to feed and have all the nutrition of freshly hatched bbs.

Microworms are excellent food too, and it's easy to keep a culture going even when you don't have tiny fry.

Hi Inchworm, i have ordered a microworm culture kit so should be with me soon. the bbs i have are de-shelled, is this what you mean by decapsulated? if so how do i feed them? do i just add them to the water from the bottle? as you can tell ive never used live food as i didnt trust the packets of worms etc from lfs.....

 

[Inchworm]

Hi mattlee

Here's a link to an ad about decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. It probably explains the process better than I could. I just dampen the tip of my finger and dip it in the eggs to pick them up, then transfer them to the tank. It takes a few seconds to get to the bottom and it seems enough to moisten them for the young fish. I've heard of putting them in a bit of water for a few minutes before adding them, but it doesn't seem necessary. I wait until they are a couple of weeks old before adding them to their diet. Be careful not to over feed and have too many left over.

I think you will like starting them out on the microworms. They are not hard to keep up but if you let them go too long, they will start to smell terrible. Since all you have to do is cook up a new batch of oatmeal to renew them, it's worth the trouble to do it regularly and avoid the smell. Since you will be getting a small amount it will take a little while to get them growing, but before long you will be able to divide it into two, etc.

I used to keep three containers going. Every two weeks or so I would prepare oatmeal and start new cultures. I would dump the oldest one out and add some oatmeal to feed one of the others. The third I would divide in two to make new ones. While the newest cultures are growing, I would feed the fish from the one I had added oatmeal to since this one would be the most active. A sprinkle of yeast is helpful too. Every day I would take the lids off, stir them with a fork, and wave the lid over them to make sure they got some fresh air. Since I used plastic shoe boxes for this, they got enough air to last them until the next day.

I liked the fact that they stay alive for a time in the water and can be easily cleaned out while doing the water changes. They will tend to clump up and what doesn't come out with the water can be taken out with a small net.