Brine Shrimp

[Monty2451]

I was thinking about starting a brine shrimp culture to feed my bettas. A couple friends of mine have cultures, and an LFS near me has babies for sale as well, so I have a couple places to get them from. So, I was just wondering if any of you have kept them, what I need to keep them going and reproducing, and how hard is it to keep them? Thanks guys.

 

[connorsbala]

I keep brine shrimp...but i cheat! I have a bucket that holds a gallon of water, i fill it up with water that i take out from my seahorse tank or any fresh SW that i dont use during water changes. I then add like 6 porions of brine shrimp every week and not one dies I can just net them out when i want, which is every Thursday. I just have an air pump running 24/7
I hatch my own baby brine shrimp as i have baby seahorses. I use the the spare water that is left over from my water changes. I add a tsp of eggs and heavily aeriate them for 24 hours, enrichen them then feed
I enrichen the brine shrimp before i feed.
I think what your tyrying to ask is how easy is it to raise brien shrimp from baby to adulthood, in whihc case i dotn know. I think you just keep heavily feeding the babies...

 

[Colin_T]

Most people use newly hatched Brineshrimp because it takes a while to grow them up to adulthood. The shrimp feed on free floating algae and can take a month or more to mature and reach full size, (depending on temperature).
If you want to try then set up a 2ft tank (or bigger container) with seawater. Add some newly hatched shrimp (nauplii) and aerate the water. Feed them on green water (algae) and if they are ok you can feed them off when bigger.
Most labs that grow Brineshrimp have a container for the shrimp and several containers for growing green water. You can grow green water by having a container of seawater, adding a handful of lawn or garden fertiliser, aerating the mixture and having it in bright light. After a few days to a week the water will start to go green and when it is dark green you can use it to feed the shrimp.
You can also just make up containers of green water and add the nauplii directly to them. The shrimp will eat the algae and when the water clears up you can scoop them out to feed off or put into another container of green water.
Under good conditions the adult females give birth to live young. If the conditions deteriorate they produce brown eggs that float around. The eggs can be scooped out and dried for later use.

Brineshrimp don't have much nutritional value when more than a few days old. Most of the nourishment fish get from eating them is from the algae in the shrimp. Newly hatched shrimp have the yolk sac that is very nutritional.

You can culture daphnia in ponds of green water outside under a tree. Set up a container of freshwater, add some fertiliser and wait until it goes green. then add some daphnia. In a few weeks you will have heaps of the stuff to feed off. A small amount of aeration in the pond will help them do better.

Mozzie larvae can be grown in tubs outside and make an excellent food for bettas.

Wingless Fruit flies can be cultured in plastic or glass bottles or jars. They are fed pieces of fruit and the adult flies are tipped onto the water for feeding. Starter cultures can be obtained from universities or some petshops.