Brine and Ghost Shrimp Set-Up

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olga21

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 27, 2008
53
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SE Texas
I got my brine shrimp hatchery in today along with a heater, and 15 more ghost shrimp. Im curious to see how things go. Is it ok to feed the brine to the shrimp even though there are no fry in there? Lupin are Reefscape was suppose to help me but I guess he is on vacation are something. Zinq any info from you would be extremely helpful are anyone else for that matter. Thanks again!

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I know I am suppose to keep the brine hatchery around 80 degrees F. Do you think this light will help? Its only at 75 F now.
 
Glad to see an update! You're shrimp look nice and happy. In fact, the closest shrimp in the last picture looks like it has eggs in its head already. Though it's hard to tell if it's food or eggs by the quality of the pic.

To tell if they're eggs or just the stomach is to see if it shrinks or grows in size with food. If it grows in size with food and takes the colour of the food then its the stomach. If it still appears green even after being fed something yellowish/brown then its eggs that are forming. Expect her to transfer the eggs to her tail within 1 to 2 weeks.

You can feed them brine shrimp if you want but it's not really worth it. If you're just trying to figure out how to work the brine shrimp hatchery and you have baby brine shrimp hatched but no baby ghost shrimp, you can still feed them to the adults. They'll eat them eventually, though they won't chase after them. Note: Baby brine shrimp usually last around 2-4 days at most then they die. (unless you started feeding the brine shrimp microfoods, which is another story in of itself.)
 
Yes you can feed Fresh Hatched Baby Brine Shrimp to the Ghost Shrimp, even though there are no fry in the tank. Just be very careful not to overfeed. If you overfeed then there is a very strong chance the tank will see an ammonia spike, or ammonia spikes.

I've found that typical Cichlid temperatures work great for BBS... but much cooler and hatch rates decline severely. In my experience 75* is cold enough to create a decline in hatching numbers, but is still warm enough to hatch out a decent amount.

It won't look as pretty, but what I would do in your situation is set up the BBS eggs & saltwater in a 1 gal ice teaa pitcher... set the pitcher in the 5 gal tank... this way the saltwater will be held at the same temp as the aquarium water...

I've been hatching my BBS this way for a while now and it's served me very well...

One other trick I've learned, that I don't hear many people talk about... is hatching large quantities of BBS and putting them in the fridge. I hatch .5~.75 fluid ounces of BBS (meansured with a shot glass) each weekend. I seperate the unhatched eggs... then the broken shells... then put the BBS (still in saltwater) in the fridge and use as needed.

I find about half will "come back to life" up to 7 days after being refrigerated. I've used them for much more than 7 days after being refrigerated, but I backed off to 7 days to avoid unnecessary risks.
 
olga21;2492175; said:
I know I am suppose to keep the brine hatchery around 80 degrees F. Do you think this light will help? Its only at 75 F now.
Click to expand...

haha sorry I missed that post. 75 F is ok, the brine shrimp eggs will still hatch. Though warmer temperatures will allow the shrimp to hatch faster and might give a higher hatch rate.
 
nc_nutcase;2492397; said:
One other trick I've learned, that I don't hear many people talk about... is hatching large quantities of BBS and putting them in the fridge. I hatch .5~.75 fluid ounces of BBS (meansured with a shot glass) each weekend. I seperate the unhatched eggs... then the broken shells... then put the BBS (still in saltwater) in the fridge and use as needed.

I find about half will "come back to life" up to 7 days after being refrigerated. I've used them for much more than 7 days after being refrigerated, but I backed off to 7 days to avoid unnecessary risks.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty good trick, especially considering the duration of the larval form of the ghost shrimp... 7 days covers it all with ample extra time. Gotta try that next time.

I usually put my unfed brine shrimp into my brine shrimp growout tank. 10gal once again with green water. Works fairly well too, though I still haven't tweaked the water conditions enuf to get them to be self-sustaining.
 
Can any of you guys write out easy to understand instructions for a noob at breeding? Im interested in breeding either ghost shrimp or marmokrebs, whichever is easiest (i know about the environmental issues with marmokrebs)
 
See this thread that I wrote for easy ghost shrimp breeding instructions:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192371

If you can get your hands on marmokrebs (the self cloning crays) then I would recommend breeding those instead. After reading's other people's experiences, it would seem that you get higher yields, easier maintenance and they probably have more meat.

I'd be breeding them myself but I can't fight a relatively cheap supplier for Canada.
 
Ya.. Im trying to see if anyone on this forum would be willing to sell me a couple of marbleds for cheap, but it doesnt seem like there is anyone willing. The prices that everyone is asking for are kind of ridiculous, considering what they are and what they do, but hey supply and demand, or just that there the only sellers of them... 30 to 40 dollars shipping is rediculous.

Thank you for that link, ill look into it.
 
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