Topic: having trouble hatching brine shrimp eggs

[Aiptasia]

It is the most convenient harvest spot, but OSI buys it's eggs from all around the world.

[mystical473a]

go with decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. just throw them in the tank and watch ur fish grow. my endlers do great with them.

I read from another forum that it may also contain growth hormones ment for the shrimp which makes the fish grow faster. also since it didn't hatch, it never used any of the nutrition in the eggs. so the fish gets all the nutrition.

[toddnbecka]

I never actually compared results myself, but I have read somewhere that using marine salt mix instead of table salt will produce better hatch rates. It seems to me that rock salt would likely be a bit better than table salt as well, less processing involved, certainly no iodine. Always make sure the salt is non-iodized in any case...

[Essabee]

Actually table salts do have some doctoring done to the actual salt - hygroscopic salts removed, iodine added, smooth flow agents like silicates added, some other coloured salts removed for keeping it looking pristine white - so table salts are usually avoided by fish-keepers.

[FishyWishy1500]

How do you decapsulate brine shrimp eggs? I read on a site that you need to put them in some sort of bleach and then into soemthing else. And it sounded pretty hard. Is there an easy way to do it?

[mikedmatthews]

i don't.  they hatch fine w/o the added effort.

[Jubs]

I just bought some decapped hatching eggs and really they suck.They hatch but the hatch rate sucks compared to normal hatching rates from even the cheap eggs I have. This might be the source though as I have never tried to decap them myself as it's really a lot of work and frankly I am not interested in investing my time to do so. I bought non hatching ones as well and they are easy to feed, just take some tank water in a cup and put some of them in it to rehydrate if you want them to sink. If not just toss them in the tank and let them float.

[FishyWishy1500]

I found these sites and it sounds like it is much better to use decapped eggs.

http://www.killies.com/Decapsulating.htm

http://www.attention-to-details.com/newslog/34h-instructions-for-decapsulating-and.asp

[Tropical Dude]

If you have fish that will eat dead stuff, just buy some non-hatching decap BS eggs.  If your fish will not eat them, just get some normal BS eggs and hatch them.  There is not really a noticeable difference in the growth of the fish between the two.

[Yipee]

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?

May I know what salt do you use?..reef salt?or plain cooking salt ?or marine salt?