How do you guys maximize your brine shrimp yields?

[Hybridfish7]

while I have success in hatching bbs for my endless supply of fry, it is usually not as much as I'd want/as much as I expect. What I am currently doing at the moment:
- 2 liter hatchery
- 1 tablespoon salt
- non dechlorinated water because I've heard the chlorine doesn't do anything to them except help them hatch easier
- warm led shone on the bottom of the hatchery, heats hatchery up at least a little bit
- aeration coming from the bottom of the upside down bottle
I get about a 50-60% initial hatch rate from eggs advertised as having a 90% hatch rate. I let it run for an extra day to get an extra 20-30% out of that.
Is there something I'm doing wrong/anything I should do that I'm not already doing?

 

[TwoHedWlf]

I've always heard you have to dechlorinate the water.

How old are your eggs? That makes a significant difference in hatch rate.

 

[Hybridfish7]

As far as I know they're brand new, they said best by next june or something.

 

[fishdance]

Decapsulate the cysts. This let's napulii hatch faster and easier (so they have more energy when eaten) and allows you to feed unhatched artemia too.

Google will provide you all the advantages.

 

[Cich Mind]

Hello Hybridfish7 ,
I'm a little late to this thread. I would like to hatch my own brine shrimp too. I don't know if you hatched any brine shrimp since your post, but there are some very good videos on Youtube that explain the process step by step. Keep in mind that some brands of brine shrimp are supposed to be better than others. One good video is from Aquarium Co-Op. It seems you're on the right track. And yes, you don't need to de-chlorinate your water. It seems that there is a certain amount of salt Vs eggs also. GL

 

[FLA]

You will never get the advertised hatch rate if you don't decapsulate the eggs. Below is a good article on how to do that. It takes a little practice to get the hang of, and like an aquarium the larger the batch the easier. You can store decapsulated eggs in the fridge for a week or more as long as you squeeze out most of the water.

FA18/FA023: Decapsulating Brine Shrimp Eggs (ufl.edu)

 

[fishdance]

You hydrate the dry cyst to remove the dried dimple shape back to spherical to evenly cook off the shell wall as part of the process but once decapsulated you can store for many weeks in a salt slurry in fridge. (essentially drying them out again).