kurt182

Simple Brine hatchery

First you need a hammer, screw driver, and a mason jar.


Next place the screw driver on top of the lid and tap it with the hammer until you get a hole. Be careful not to shatter the glass.


Next, place the water inside the bottle. Put the air line through one of the holes and add the air stone to the end once through the hole. Airstone not required but it helps to hold the air line in place.


Last add your brine shrimp eggs and follow instructions and you will have brine shrimp in a day.


This is my first attempt at a DIY. This is just how I made mine. If you make any improvements or have a suggestion to improve it please let me know!
Thanks for reading,
Justin

Jimbo205

Great Start.

To increase yields here are my suggestions.

For 50 cents from the local fish store get one of those stiff clear plastic airhoses to put at the end of the hose itself. Anchors itself and it produces bubbles that are just the right size. I don't know why but 'they' say that air bubbles created by airstones are too small and are NOT good for Artemia. I don't remember why, just remember they said that.

Always add 1/4 tsp baking soda to make sure pH is above 8.0

And 3 drops of unscented bleach to each batch of eggs you are hatching. And maybe the bath water you may be 'heating' them in.

However you do it, make sure the temperature is between 80-84 degrees Farenheit.
Too hot (86 degrees for example) and the nauplii will suffocate, to cool (78 degrees maybe) and it will take too long for the Nauplii to hatch. This was the hardest part for me to get down. Once I did, the rest became easier.

You only want to hatch the amount you would want to feed in one shot.
Freshness is VITAL. at 18-24-30 hours the nauplii have just hatched and their nutritional value is EXTREMELY HIGH, but afterwards the nutritional value takes a nosedive.

Only hatch the amount you want to feed FRESH. And it is addictive. Once you have success you want to hatch everyday. Almost ALL creatures love this stuff.

For the most in depth expert article on the topic,
I highly suggest the article this year by Mike Helleg and Gary Lange (both expert fish breeders) in The Tropical Fish Hobbyist (TFH) named 'Hatching Brine Shrimp'. Amazing Article. I have reread it over, and over, and over again. These guys know their stuff.

You can feed your creatures the best there is for roughly 4 cents a day.

Great thread. I can't wait to see more photos.

Oh, and shut off your filter until they get all eaten. No need to feed your filter.

mhoy

You might want to shrink your images they are taking a long time to load and I'm DSL. You can always just provide a link to higher res pictures.

rs79

The last hacthery I build held four two litre soda bottles upside down.

I used two pieces of 3/4 pine and 4 1" dowels as a stand, drilled the caps, stuck airline tubing in them and sealed them with silicone.

It worked spectacularly well but oh god it was noisy.

I got the idea from Dale Weber in Marin Country. He had it in his kitchen. Man his wife had a sense of humor...

Jimbo205

If I had any of my aquarium stuff in the kitchen, it would last about a 1/2 hour. After that it would be gone.

I would not even need to ask where it was.

I purchase clear trash bags for the garbage container. If I can't find something in the house, I know where to look first.

Dale Weber's wife must REALLY love him.

rs79, do you have a digital photo of that? (I have mine locked up in my computer at home.)

rs79

Nah, sorry, no photos exist of it; I built in LA and moved 17 years ago.

Dales's wife was a real trooper. One time the Southern California Killi club was up visiting the Bay Area club (Dale lived in Marin) and we (8 of us) show up at the door, Dale lets us in and tells his wife "we'll be stayingg here tonight, sorry hun forgot to tell ya where are the cots?". She just rolled her eyes and said "oh Dale..." and got the cots.

Sadly Dale died collecting fish in Brazil about 10 years ago; he was a bit of a legend in killi-dom and one of my better friends. He was a bit of a bugger; he had AKA mousepads printed up without asking the AKA. To this day I stlll use mine. He was probably the most fun killi guy I ever met. God I miss Dale.

This is fash is named for him:

http://images.killi.net/w/WEB/

Jimbo205

rs79, can you post another thread telling us more about Dale and Brazil? That sounds very interesting. I am sorry to hear about his death. Sounds like a great guy.