Topic: having trouble hatching brine shrimp eggs

[Essabee]

i built my hatcher from a 2 litre juice bottle.  in 1.5 L of water i add 4 slightly heaping spoons (plastic disposable) of salt, 2 teaspoons of eggs, and 1.6 mls of bleach.  i bubble hard for 48 hours and and unless there's somethign odd, i get a great hatch.  i have the best luck with jehmco eggs.  $36 a can is higher than kens and BSD, but they work better for me.  not sure why there's a difference.

where do you get your eggs?

I would like to do some brine shrimp hatching, I have never tried to before now. When you talk of bleach, Mike, you mean a standard product, but this may vary from country to country. Could you give me the details of the concentration and ingredients of the product you use. It would help me understand what to use here.

[Clint]

I have found that "good" brine shrimp eggs will hatch at just about any salinity and temperature AND "bad" brine shrimp eggs won't hatch under pefect conditions no matter how much you try.

Even the old nekkid chicken rain dance doesn't work. (Caveman thing)

Get "good" eggs and all will be well. If you're having problems its almost always bad eggs.

[Ppulcher]

I would like to do some brine shrimp hatching, I have never tried to before now. When you talk of bleach, Mike, you mean a standard product, but this may vary from country to country. Could you give me the details of the concentration and ingredients of the product you use. It would help me understand what to use here.

I figured it is regular household bleach.  In North America this is normally a 5.25% solution of sodium hypochlorite.

[Essabee]

Thanks Mike, bleach in India means calcium hypocloride powder! So you see.

[mikedmatthews]

Thanks Mike, bleach in India means calcium hypocloride powder! So you see.

yeah, if you were to google clorox liquid, that's what i'm using.

[FishyWishy1500]

When I first hatched my Brine Shrimp eggs about 3 or 4 months ago, I let them sit for 24 (or a little more) hours, and I didn't think they had hatched. BUT... no one had told me the size the brine shrimp were going to be once they hatched. So I was looking for something MUCH bigger!  But then I noticed that they actually DID hatch, only they were about the same size as the eggs and it was pretty hard to see them without a very bright light held right up to the jar. So if you don't have any experience hatching them, you might not think they are hatched but they really could be.

I hope this helps you and others. 

[helenf]

that's seriously expensive.  i got a pound can for $36 and if you are ok with a lower hatch, the 80% gets as low as $20 a pound.

Seems like everything fishy is more expensive here in Australia, actually.  I guess because most of it is imported since we don't have a large local population to support much of a home-grown industry.  Anyway, those eggs were the relatively cheap ones, and maybe I do have to go to the more expensive ones. 

If you want to be even more glad you're not in Australia, my LFS has some for $16AU (about $14 US) for a container of about 30g!  (The online retailers are much cheaper than my LFS in nearly everything except actual fish.)

When I first hatched my Brine Shrimp eggs about 3 or 4 months ago, I let them sit for 24 (or a little more) hours, and I didn't think they had hatched. BUT... no one had told me the size the brine shrimp were going to be once they hatched. So I was looking for something MUCH bigger!  But then I noticed that they actually DID hatch, only they were about the same size as the eggs and it was pretty hard to see them without a very bright light held right up to the jar. So if you don't have any experience hatching them, you might not think they are hatched but they really could be.

I hope this helps you and others. 

I did realise they would be small and am looking carefully for the hatched shrimps, but not seeing anything.  The system I am using is supposed to collect them into the container at the top anyway, since that is where the light is.  But I've peered carefully into the black box and shone a torch into it too, to see if I could spot anything moving, and I haven't seen anything.

What colour are the hatched shrimp?  I did see a few specks of red stuff that I thought might have been them, this last time.  But a few hours later they were gone with no more appearing.  Maybe they were dirt or something else.  My eggs are brown, so I'm pretty sure I wasn't looking at eggs. 

Anyway, I'm trying again this time with using bicarb soda to raise the pH to 8.2.   I found a website suggesting that they like to hatch at pH between 7.5 and 8.5, and my tap water is about 6.6.  So maybe this will make a difference.  Also put a thermometer in to actually know what temperature I am heating the water to with my light.  Will let you know if I get anywhere this time...

Helen

[mikedmatthews]

should be bright orange/red.  yeah, we have the little rip-off bottles in all our LFS too.

[FishyWishy1500]

Mine were light pinkish red. The way I hatched mine was using the instructions on this site:
http://www.sfbb.com/kidscorner.asp (click on "How to Hatch Brine Shrimp.")

It is very easy instructions. I put the water, salt, eggs, and the air
stone in the jar, then I placed a low watt lamp over the jar and left it for a day or two.

Hope you can hatch them! 

[rlampe]

We hatch ours in aquatic habitats hatcheries (pretty expensive, but the lab pays for them). I add about 4-5tsp of aquarium salt and 1.5tsp of eggs to 1.5L of system water (has a pH of ~7.5 and salt content of ~500ppm). I bubble it for 48 hours. After more than that, they die without any food, but less than 48, and not many hatch. They're reddish-orange. (My friend once grossly referred to the concentrated shrimp at the bottom as a "fishy orange julius.") They're teeny, but if you get your face up in it, you can see them swimming around to make sure they're alive. Once you do it a few times, you get used to the color and texture you're looking for and you'll know instantly if they are good or not.

Good luck, hope things are working better by now!