? for anyone who keeps live brine shrimp

[reb]

Does anyone have a way that they keep live brine shrimp with out it smelling up the entire house? I have tried keeping them in a small (5 gal) aquarium with a cover and an air bubbler, and that didn't work. I tried keeping them in a cool whip container with a lid and a small enough hole just for the air tube, and that didn't work. I am out of ideas. A different LFS I saw this weekend kept theirs in a sealed plastic bag in a refrigerator. They were all alive in there. Wouldn't either the cold or the fact that they weren't getting any air kill them in a short period of time? Any suggestions are appreciated!!!

 

[beaslbob]

Just as an experiement years ago I put some brine shrimp eggs in a 1 quart open jar and threw in a little baker's yeast. It would clear up after a couple of days then I would put in a little more yeast. After two months I had adult brine shrimp. Even though some had egg sacks, all died after about 3 months or so. I suspect I never got a second generation.
I asked the same question of my LFS while getting some live brine. Seems brine live in bays where they live in brackish as well as full saltwater. Because of that, culturing them is difficult. The LFSs I know usually order new live brine each week. The brine you saw in the plastic bag had probably only been there for a few days.
It would be interesting to find out how to culture brine as well as other stuff such as gramarus(sp).

 

[koolaid]

WOW, that is more than I would ever need to know about brine.
Great article

 

[reb]

Awesome explanation!! What about the fact that when I'm keeping adult brine shrimp they give off such an oder that my wife is going to shoot me. How do I control or get rid of the smell? I've tried sealed containers and that hasn't helped. Any other suggestions?

 

[fishman830]

i have a can of brine shrimp eggs, and im unsuccesfula t best! anyone got any simpler instructions than whats on the can

 

[newbienz]

The baby brine that I hatch don't smell too bad. But then again I don't keep them until adult hood, so I guess I don't raise them long enough to find out. Thanks for the warning about the smell. I guess I wouldn't try to raise mine till adult hood. I do feed them frozen brine once a week.
How do you hatch yours? What do you feed it until adult hood?
Thanks.
I have a rectangular tub with a lid. The lid has a whole big enough for a cup to be placed in it. The cup has a plastic lid with a hole. Both are filled with water. The rectangular tub also has the brine shrimp egg and salt mixture. Purchased the hatchery at PetsMart, but you could easly replicate it. I may build another one myself for more brine.
The baby brine swim into the cup because of the light.
Here is an image I made on how you can make one if anybody is interest.

 

[reb]

I've used that hatchery and it worked pretty good. I had problems raising them to adulthood, so I've been buying adult brine at the LFS. These are the ones that smell, never had a problem with the babies smelling. I need adult brine because I feed them to my sea horses.