Hatching Brine Shrimp

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LarryB

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My new "plate" style brine shimp hatchery came today. Any wisdom for a first time hatcher?
 
My new "plate" style brine shimp hatchery came today. Any wisdom for a first time hatcher?

Dont count on them as fish food. Use them as candy rather than food. Thats one nice thing about the dish you can do as many or as little as you want. I would also buy already decapsulated eggs.


Don
 
Brine shrimp nauplii are great in marine lipids as long as you use them immediately after hatching. Reason being, the egg sack starts being consumed as soon as they hatch out. Non hatching decapped cysts will retain their lipid content until eaten or until they decompose if not eaten.
If you culture brine shrimp to juvenile or adult, the nutrient profile changes so that the lipid content decreases but the protein level increases.
For example, for GSL cysts, instar 1 nauplii will have lipid content 20.8 - 23.1% but protein levels are only in the 41.6 - 47.2% range.
Cultured juveniles and adults will range 9.4 - 19.5% lipids but protein will run 49.7 - 62.5% without gut loading, and assuming they are properly fed.
Wild caught adults will provide 2.4 - 19.3% lipids and 50.2 - 69.0% protein.
[source: Léger et al., 1986 as shown in the Artemia section of the UN's FAO site in the Manual on the Production and Use of Live Food for Aquaculture]
All stages after the instar 1 stage can be gut loaded to change the nutrient profile, increasing lipids or protein, or get vitamins to the fish, or, to possibly administer a medication to a fish that you have no other way to do so.
 
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