In tank brine shrimp hatchery ?

[mproctor4]

Does anyone have any experience with these? I know it would not be difficult to set up a traditional brine shrimp hatchery but we already have too many tanks and fish stuff all over the house. I would like to minimize that a bit. I am wondering how well they work? The salinity in my tank is higher than then recommended salinity for hatching brine shrimp, although the packing says the hatchery works in fresh and saltwater tanks. Anybody had any luck with these before I waste my money? thanks.

 

[smartorl]

I have used them BUT, I have had issues with consistancy and being able to keep the tank parameters stable.
I had a friend who was using them exclusively to rear her reidi fry in their suspension tank and it kept malfunctioning and she lost about five broods until she stopped using it and put it together that the hatchery was causing some instability issues and wasn't providing a consistant supply of foods.
I have a super simple system that I keep in the garage. The heat helps the hatches come sooner. I just use mason jars, peroxide out the lines and jars in between uses and if they are too gunky (I hatch high volumes, bbs soup) I don't feel bad about tossing them out.
I have gotten just as good of results from a simple air pump and mason jar sets as with more intricate or specialty hatchers.

 

[teresaq]

bbs are very dirty. After all i have hatched, I would not want that water in my tank. I even rinse, peroxide and rinse again before adding to tank.
What are you feeding these too???? unless you have fry, they are too small to feed fish.
T

 

[mproctor4]

I was hoping to supplement for my mandrin and a treat for the other fish. Also my husband has a small pipefish in his tank. It is not intended to be their main food source as we both have well established copods. We will probably end up setting up a traditional hatchery, just trying to avoid extra clutter. I was actually thinking about the garage, at least in the summer. Our furnance is in the garage so it never gets bitter cold but I'm sure it wouldn't be warm enough all year round. Is there certain eggs you like better than others? Thanks for your suggestions, I'm going to have to think about it a bit. Spanko gave my hubbie a nice plan for a hatchery also.

 

[saxman]

Those "in-tank" hatcheries are bad juju. As Theresa mentioned, "hatch water" is one of the nastiest things in the hobby. Another consideration is that BBS aren't demersal and thus, aren't a great choice for a browser like a mandy.
Also, decap your cysts before you hatch them. You get a better hatch rate and won't have to worry about separating shells from the BBS when you harvest them.

 

[jerth6932]

bbs are very dirty. After all i have hatched, I would not want that water in my tank. I even rinse, peroxide and rinse again before adding to tank.
What are you feeding these too???? unless you have fry, they are too small to feed fish.
T
I've fed my fish them for 4 months ( its not in tank rearing, either)..... they eat them well..... they aren't too small for my fish (clowns, yellow tang, flame angel, bartlet anthias, mccoskers wrass, and jaws (midas blenny)). They swim like crazy after them. Ill get a short vid of it when my whites turn on for the day..... blues on (leds).

 

[jerth6932]

http://m.youtube.com/index?client=mv-google&desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US&rdm=4mz6cssa4#/watch?v=w3kA9GHI30g
sorry its a bit sloppy but you will get the gist.

 

[mproctor4]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! Jerth6932--for some reason I couldn't find the video. Thanks for trying though. I actually went out this morning and got some eggs, connectors, and a few feet of airline tubinb. I have everything else so it cost about $6 to give it a try. With the info everyone gave me about the in tank unit, I decided to just try the glass jar route for now. The in tank unit was $27 and I don't want to polute the tank!
To bad it isn't good for the mandrin. Hoping it will be benefical for the pipefish and a nice treat for the others.

 

[jerth6932]

This should work

 

[mproctor4]

That did work. Thanks!

It is good to see that your tang can eat them. I have 3 tangs, although my sailfin is alot bigger than your yellow. Hopefully he will be able to eat them. He can eat fish rowe that is super tiny. It is funny watching him eating those. He looks like he just swims around frantically with his mouth open. I'm wondering if my suncorals might eat them too? we will see. Mostly I am hoping my hubbies baby pipefish will eat them. My daughter is in the kitchen preparing her jar as we speak. She currently has 3 of her own freshwater tanks and is about to have baby guppies she would like to feed the brine to. the fun never ends.