# Advice on hatching baby brine shrimp



## indianabetta (May 3, 2012)

OK so I will be hatching my first baby brine shrimp and need any advice, do I need two hatcherys? how often do I need to hatch, how much to hatch each time, and how much to feed each feeding for newly hatched fry? ANY and ALL advice would be helpful!! ALSO where do you get your BBS eggs? 

Is this a good place? and price? should I get the big order or smaller order? 
http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/Shell-Free-E-Z-Egg-c202.html


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8sNx9zTOnQ


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## indianabetta (May 3, 2012)

lovely tuttorial but how much do i feed my fry each feeding? and how often do i need to hatch the eggs? it looked like there was alot of bbs in each drop from his straw!


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

I set up a hatch every night. I use a lot since I have at least three spawns going at once.


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## indianabetta (May 3, 2012)

GASP* I just saw this on another site - 
The Artemia should be fed immediately to fry for the best nutritional effect. If attempting to enrich or feed it around ten hours should lapse — after which it will have moulted, developed a mouth and be capable of feeding on micro-organisms. Enriching before this time will be futile.

SO the bbs are no good 10 hours after hatching, sooo all those bbs i hatched would go to waste


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## indianabetta (May 3, 2012)

so you just dump out the old every day? WOW Do i need to do half a teaspoon each hatching? Where do you get your BBS eggs?


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

I bought mine from the IBC (link in sig).

I use a heaping teaspoon per hatch. I freeze as much as I can in fish bags before I dump the old out (hence why there's more frozen BBS than human food in my freezer).


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## indianabetta (May 3, 2012)

When do u use up your frozen? I thought they preffered their food to be moving/alive


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## indianabetta (May 3, 2012)

Im assuming when they are older, just wondered around what week you think they would eat it


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## jeffegg2 (Apr 5, 2012)

I don't use the decapulated brine. It is an unneeded expense... the bbs are easy enough to hatch with the correct setup. I use a turkey baster and suck up from the pink bottom (actually the top) of the bottle. I have my brine shrimp net positioned over the bbs bottle and put the bbs into that net. I then gently rinse them under the faucet, and upend-swish into a small glass of water. I use the baster to feed these then to the spawns, only useing what they will eat.

My bbs hatching lasts about 3 days, when it is that old I dump it and move the last one I dumped to the front. If you have a new spawn, you should need no more than 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of bbs eggs per culture. As they grow you will be using closer to 1/2 teaspoon. Even then you will have a few leftovers, that is ok and better than too few.

The newly hatched ones are better for the smaller fry. 

How much to feed? How much can they eat? Start slow and observe.... The small ones won't eat much, when they get larger they eat more.

The first couple days I feed mostly mw, and add a few bbs for those that have the mouth to fit them. Feed sparingly... and closely observe the fry for their eating habits... I am still adding some ocassional mw to my 5 week fry for variety.

The mw will live longer in the tank than the bbs as the bbs live in salt water and the fresh water will soon kill them.

Jeff.


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## Curlyfatbottom (Sep 29, 2011)

Freeze them to preserver them so the bbs will hold it's best nutrient.
Two day old bbs is just an empty shield, don't hold any value 

You can reuse the bbs when the fry is wean of from live food 
That depend on u


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## indianabetta (May 3, 2012)

I have Decapsulated BBS eggs and fed them to my ONE fry just 5 minutes ago, and his belly is already orange  So atleast I know they will eat those, def. a cheap low maintenance alternative. I just ordered some BBS eggs, so im going to hatch my own for the very first time for the new fry at about 1 week old, since my ONE fry will eat the DBBSE i will just keep him on that and MW until my first BBS hatching


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## Curlyfatbottom (Sep 29, 2011)

Good luck n have fun


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## HatsuneMiku (Jul 29, 2011)

i use pre-mix aq salt instead of table salt .. and i also double dilute the concentration of the water from the harvested bbs before feeding to my fry .. just so i don't get as much salt into my babies tank


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## indianabetta (May 3, 2012)

I found this on the website that the IBC gets their bbs eggs from

Cold storage of live BBS saves time and eliminates the need to maintain daily hatches of brine shrimp cysts. When newly hatched brine shrimp are stored at 4°C, their metabolism is slowed down considerably, conserving essential nutrients, lipids, and fatty acids that many fish and invertebrate larvae require. A lower metabolism will also slow down growth and maintain a smaller feed particle size for smaller larvae and fry.
Later feedings of stored BBS is easy. Simply pour the BBS into a fine mesh net, rinse with fresh water, and feed.


I am going to try this!


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## Crowntailed (Apr 19, 2012)

MrVampire181 said:


> I bought mine from the IBC (link in sig).
> 
> I use a heaping teaspoon per hatch. I freeze as much as I can in fish bags before I dump the old out (hence why there's more frozen BBS than human food in my freezer).


Can you please explane more about how you freeze your BS? I am hatching some BS for my other none betta fish and well i added way to many eggs by accedent, So i think i will try freezing them for later use.


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## indianabetta (May 3, 2012)

I believe you have to strain them and put them in regular water, then add them to fish bags (or breast milk bags) and just freeze them that way BUT I havent done it yet


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