Adult Brine Shrimp

**stevefranks** · 04-17-2006, 05:38 AM

I am settting up a brine shrimp hatchery (quite large scale, using 3ft tanks) and I wondered if adult brine shrimp are suitable food for the reef aquarium?

I have read that they have little nutritional value?

I intend to feed the adults with home grown phyto, will this enrich them suitably or should I use egg white, yeast etc?

I intend to freeze my excess in ice cube trays.

Also, would it be suitable to feed the aquarium solely on baby and adult brine shrimp and phyto or are other foods needed?

**JustDavidP** · 04-17-2006, 09:19 AM

Brine shrimp have very little nutrutional value after about 18 hours of life. It is at that point that the yolk sac is depleted and they then have to find food. At that time, they are not much more than a shell...a conduit of sorts. They obviously have SOME nutritional value, but very little. You'd really need to "gut pack" them with some food of value and use them as a "carrier" to get that same food to the ultimate end user, your fish and other charges within the tank.

I have used them for over 20 years as "snacks" or supplemental foods in a balanced diet. It is a good food to use if you have a fish that is finicky in eating, due to illness, or during training from live foods to frozen. They may also be important if you have mandarins or other fish that are particualar in their diets.

However, in systems such as ours, where you could really label them as "community" tanks, I'd urge folks to mix and match diets. A good DIY fish mush is the way to go. Otherwise, use a variety of foods, ensuring that each type is accepted. There is no need to feed nori for instance, if you have no fish or other tankmates that are strictly carniverous. A lot of folks pollute their systems using too many foods that go uneaten. Even foods that are eagerly taken can cause problems if overfed. Cyclopeeze or daphnia users can attest that in the case of these foods, a little goes a long way.

In my SPS and Clam dominated tank, I fed the following: Formula 1, Formula 2, cyclopeeze, phyto products, nori, frozen mysid, flaked spirulina, and from time to time, frozen brine shrimp.

Dave

**stevefranks** · 04-17-2006, 01:36 PM

Hi Dave,

If i feed the adults with phytoplankton that I am going to farm, will this be a good enrichment?

I was hoping to really save money by growing on the shrimp and feeding, as frozen food are expensive in the UK.

What do you think?

**JustDavidP** · 04-17-2006, 01:41 PM

If you feed them a good quality phyto, this is good. You can also use brewers yeast, boiled egg yolk, other enrichment products like Selcon etc. This will make them much more acceptable in nutrient quality.

Why don't you try breeding mysid shrimp? The only real effort needed is acquisition of the orginal shrimp colony (a dozen or so) and then siphoning out fry when they are young. Mysid tend to be canablalistic so you can't maximize your return unless you thin them out. Otherwise, it is a much better source of crude nutrients that your tank needs.

Dave

**stevefranks** · 04-17-2006, 04:01 PM

Hi Dave

http://www.aqualogistix.co.uk/livefoodpricelist.php

Would any of these be suitable and interesting to raise?

***Rob*** · 04-17-2006, 04:10 PM

Steve, i would skip the whole raising of the Brine, and simple feed the naupalli to the tank. they are easy to hatch, and easy to feed. you simply hatch as needed and then feed. no long term setups, freezing or anything, and they are quite nutritious

**stevefranks** · 04-17-2006, 04:19 PM

I kind of like doing stuff like this thats the trouble! The brine shrimp hatchers I have seen are not interesting enough for me - I like things to be bit more involved!!

Point taken though about not raising to adulthood!

***Rob*** · 04-17-2006, 04:37 PM

lol...
i know the feeling, but trust me.. once you get everything going it will be involved enough for ya..

i guess what im saying is if you want something more complex find something else, the effort involved in the brine shrimp probably isn't worth what you would get out of it.. but that's JMO

**pham411** · 04-17-2006, 04:58 PM

yupz, they are as nutrituos as potatoe chips. although the ones you buy frozen from your lfs are vitamin enriched. my lfs here in hawaii sells adult brine shrimp for about $1 for 2 tbl spoons. i feed them as snacks inbetween meals. i guess if you freeze your own just make sure you freez them in fresh cold water and not the water you were raising them in.

good luck

**stevefranks** · 04-18-2006, 06:00 AM

Did anyone find anything more complex for me to grow on the link I posted?!!

They have some interesting starter cultures etc..

**JustDavidP** · 04-18-2006, 10:49 AM

I don't know what a marine mud shrimp is, but it sounds interesting

To tell you the truth, I personally wouldn't pay for these cultures unless I had NO other resource. Many hobbyists will help provide a baggie of sand or macro that has some of these life forms in them already.

Here's a simple project for you that will result in a swarm of lil' buggies for feeding, breeding, trading, and your amusement:

Get a 10 gallon tank, cheapo..doesn't have to look pretty at all. A cover of some sorts to help with evaporation and preclude dust and other airborne problems is recommended. I use plexiglass for my covers, but a standard AGA plastic cover will do. No need for the lightbulb.

Get a sponge filter. NOT a power filter/cascading etc....a chunk o' sponge and a lenght of flexible airline. Get a small length (6 inches or so) of rigid airline too.

Get a small air pump for connection to the sponge filter. I've also used a "T" to run one length of airline to the sponge filter and another for a rigid airline, free standing bubbler on the other side of the tank. This helps to ensure good flow.

Get a few pounds of mature live rock from a reputable LFS. You may pay more per pound because you are buying very little, but you need just a few pounds...and at least you can tell if it is truly cured.

You could also use a very thin layer of sand, but I don't. I like to siphon the bottom of my "reactors" to keep the sludge levels down. NOT ELIMINATED... remember, one man's sludge is another beasts bonanza!!

Put the rock into prepared salt water in the 10 gallon tank. Connect the airline to the pump. If using the "T", connect the airline to the rigid tubing as well and position in the far corner (from the filter). Power the sucker up.....

Wait.... wait...wait.. after a day or two, put in some pulverized, powdered flake (just a pinch) and like 1 tsp of phyto or 1/2 cup DIY greenwater (remember Rob's podcast... DIY=thin culture...Store bought=dense culture.... ....wait...wait...wait... a few days later, if the water is clear again, put in more greenwater and pulverized flake food...wait..wait again...and repeat as needed whenever you see the water go from light green to clear.

There is no need for light during this process... you are growing copepods, isopods, mysid shrimp...anything that came with your rock. They do not need any more than the ambient light from the room..and, if your tank can be kept in an area that is "room temperature", you do not need a heater.

Within a couple of weeks, you will see the small Munnidae Isopods & Harpacticoid Copepods on the glass proper. You will also see a lot of gammarus amphipods scuttling amongst the rocks. If you are lucky, you may see some opossum shrimp (Marine Mysid) scooting around as well. They are easier to see in the dark, with a flashlight. Their eyes (I think..may be part of the carapace) will reflect in the light.

I have two such "Dark Reactors" going in my home. I couldn't even begin to count the numbers of pods within each. It takes just a month or so before you can start siphoning some out for food, or to repopulate your display tank.

Keep in mind....the gammarus amphipods are "king of the hill". They will devour the copepods and isopods and will eventually become the sole proprietor of the reactor. I've siphoned them out of one system as I find them, and put them into the second. I now have one that grows nothing but amphipods and another that has copepods, isopods and mysid.

Finally, Marine Mysid are cannibalistic. They WILL eat their own. If you do not feed that reactor properly, you will find that your population gets to a "threshold" and just maintains itself. In my system, when I see the young shrimp schooling (they stay to a low flow corner and look like little swarms of sperm), I siphon them out to another system (5 gallon) to ensure I don't lose my culture.

There are a TON of reactor plans out there. Some involve tubes, media etc. I prefer the "au naturale" process that I'm using. I will add that from time to time, I'll put in some filter media in the reactor (I loosen the pad, decompressing it and making the pores/fibers looser and wider) so I can later move that media to my display tank or fry tanks. Otherwise, it's just live rock condos.

Dave

***Rob*** · 04-18-2006, 11:16 AM

Dave, that's a GREAT suggestion.
in fact i have setup a similar system this past weekend.
that might be a show worthy topic..

let me know if you want to help record that one with me..

**JustDavidP** · 04-18-2006, 11:39 AM

Sure... AND.. for what it's worth, you can do the same "in-line" by using those 2 cubic foot or so, tupperware/pastic storage bins (solid color/opaque and not clear), bulkhead(s), a powerhead, PVC or flexible tube with adaptors/couplings. This is what I hope to do this coming weekend....

I simply drilled the top cover to feed water from the "Sumpzilla" via a MJ1200 and let the water flow through this "Dark Chamber" filled with LR rubble and then back into the refugium. The dark system allows for both micro crustaceans AND sponges to thrive. Most people do not know that marine sponge, pound for pound, are better filters than anything that can be commercially produced. At the same time, this dark chamber also provides the right environment for pods. The water that flows through is obviously nutrient rich, so no additional feeding/care is needed.

I have a buddy who tried one of these. He literally plugged it into the system and forgot about it (I'd recommend you keep this "peripherall" system in mind and check its well being often). He broke open the dark fuge only when it began to have flow problems (slight trickle/overflow from the lid) and we were absolutely AMAZED at what was inside. MORE BUGS than you could imagine...it actually made my skin crawl. To boot, the real flood issue was caused by the maturing of an AMAZING variety of sponges; white stringy sponge, red/pink encrusting sponge, deep purple and blue sponge, onyx black sponge...EVERYWHERE.. it literally fused together the LR rubble to the point that it looked like a technicolor, LR rubble omelet!

Dave