Help change the way Brine shrimp is kept/sold at a store.

[Aquarium Co-Op]

Hi everyone, I'm the owner of Aquarium Co-Op. We are a freshwater only store. That being said I've added Live brine shrimp to our live food offerings on top of everything else. I feel I can come up with a better system than what stores are typically doing which is the buy and die method.

Current method advised by wholesalers of the shrimp. Put 1 pint of shrimp into a tank on Friday, and sell it all before it dies Sunday. Sometimes this is just a 5 gallon bucket or two.

My current method keeps them for as long as I need too really but I want to really beef up the system.

75 gallon tank stacked over a 90 gallon tank. The top 75g has an overflow. I've got some chaeto up top, and a few pieces of live rock.
90 gallon on the bottom is bare bottom.

I can pump water between the two tanks using a canister filter with a sponge on the intake, but even at very slow flows it'll suck up some brine shrimp.

This setup will keep the shrimp alive thus far but with high levels of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. Which the brine shrimp tolerate, but is not sustainable long term. The more shipments of brine that go in will add to this.

The problems I see.

• Brine Shrimp molt at an incredible speed. Lots of waste here. Need to remove shells from time to time?
• Keeping shrimp where I want them. I'd like a way to contain shrimp to 1 vessel. Be it a tank, 55 gallon barrel etc.
• Nutrient export. Without water changes. Being freshwater only, there is no reef tank saltwater waste to do water changes on brine shrimp tanks. So all water changes is purely a cost adding to brine shrimp cost.
• Is heat a concern? The extra space that I have them in now is at 55 degrees. Is heating up the water worth it?

I'd like to design a closed system where the only new water coming in is from the water that has left from selling the brine shrimp. Please add any ideas you have to any portion of the system. I think lots of different people have experience with different setups and can lend some info.

I think this is the order I need to address issues before building a new system.
1. Shrimp Containment. If I can keep the shrimp in 1 vessel, exterior vessels can be used for filtration etc.

• Ideas: Huge filter sock type device used as a barrel liner. - worried about clogging and overflow.
• Mattenfilter, basically large sponge walls to block shrimp from an overflow or intake pump. - Worried about clogging up and how long, depends on flow rate?
• Designing a system where shrimp can move throughout. This requires pumps without impellers. Air lift tech, maybe something else?

2.Filtration.

• Skimmer, will this help reduce ammonia/nitrite/nitrate in a meaningful way. This has it's limitations, shrimp must be contained somewhere and feeding the brine, might require this to be shut off etc?
• Refugium. Chaeto, macro algaes, mangroves etc? Upkeep? Do mangroves have to be misted a few times a week to keep the salt off the leaves? Will this even make a big enough dent in the bio load vs how much space it takes up.
• Shell removal, if I have all brine shrimp in a top tank and install a sock filter in the bottom tank/sump. I could use a siphon to siphon water and shells into the sump sock. The sock collects all the debris, and lets the water back into the system.

3. Feeding/enriching

• Green Water - Thus far is has been hard to keep going and seems like more work than it's worth. In freshwater live daphnia culturing, the cultures I get going can consume 300 gallons of green water a day, not sustainable.
• Yeast/spirulina power - Blend this into water and feed. My brain tells me a skimmer will skim this out, because with an airstone in freshwater in a bottle, it'll bubble out of the bottle.
• Maybe a liquid addivtive to the system I don't know about, that won't be skimmed out and isn't crazy expensive?

This is just a start, I full believe there will be more things to design in the system and trial and error. I can have things custom fabricated etc, but it is costly and will be done if proof of concept is achieved.

Materials I prefer to use for this type of project would be rubbermaid tubs, 55 gallon barrels and laguna ponds, 6x4x2 340 gallon ponds. I have access to all of these and can plumb them together.

I've read many studies etc on brine shrimp aquaculture. The methods used there are too intensive for a store owner. There isn't enough time to change the collection plates etc to filter out the shells once a day etc. Also many places run the salinity so high that bacteria can't form which keeps things sterile, but would be hard to break down waste. All these places have access to an ocean to pump water directly from though so it's a non issue.

Thank you ahead of time for any input, feel free to mull it over for a few days as this I feel is a complex problem as I've spent months googling trying to find something like already done and shared online. I fully believe it's been achieved by people before, but not written up on how to accomplish it.

 

[mfinn]

I've read many studies etc on brine shrimp aquaculture. The methods used there are too intensive for a store owner. There isn't enough time to change the collection plates etc to filter out the shells once a day etc. Also many places run the salinity so high that bacteria can't form which keeps things sterile, but would be hard to break down waste. All these places have access to an ocean to pump water directly from though so it's a non issue.
.

I think these reason's are why you don't see anyone except a commercial operation doing this.

I would love to have a local source for live brine for myself and actually talked with another local hobbyist about this quite a few years ago, but just couldn't overcome the problems listed.

 

[Aquarium Co-Op]

I thought of another question. Is there something that would eat the shells that would either tolerate the elevated waste levels, or something to eat them when it's more in line. I was thinking Nerite snails possibly since I have access to them in my freshwater shop anyways.

 

[mfinn]

Use decapsulated eggs

 

[Aquarium Co-Op]

I should have specified this is for adult live brine shrimp. Not hatching brine.

 

[rayjay]

Wow, you certainly want to make a lot of work for yourself.
Yes, it IS a lot of work to maintain adult/juvenile cultures, and it's certainly more costly if you are using conventional salt mix for the culture water.
For the water, just buy sodium chloride water softener salt (evaporate purification preferred) and mix 10 parts of that with one part of epsom salts (Walmart 4K jugs) and then add some baking soda for buffer.
Probably about a teaspoon of baking soda per 20g of water at 1.017/1.018.
Don't worry about the ammonia as it doesn't become a problem in a few weeks.
I only use live nanno for growing nauplii for the first 7 to 10 days, but after that I use greenwater made of spirulina powder from Brine Shrimp Direct which I make up about 3 heaping tablespoons to 2 litres of tap water and mix on high in blender for AT LEAST 2 minutes. Add enough to colour the water to a good degree, measuring how much that takes so that when the water browns from the decaying feces and molts you still add the same amount. Feed enough that it will hold the colour for about 4 hours, but feed at least 2 times a day but 3 times is best.
Keeping food in suspension is a big problem using a tank, with a cone being the ideal method. As cones are too expensive I use 26g Rubbermaid garbage cans that I prop on an angle so that open ended air line placed at the lowest point gives the best recirculation. This will easily hold a little over 20g of water and will take about 3 to 4 cups of adult brine with proper aeration.
Because the tanks foul so much using inert food, I change the water about every 10 to 14 days and it IS smelly and dirty.
I stop the aeration and let it sit for a few hours for all the detritus to settle, then siphon out the brine, leaving the crap on the sides and bottom which will be washed before replacing the brine.
Now you don't want to have a smelly set up to pull brine from each time you want a sale, so you have an inverted 5g water bottle with the bottom cut out and neck fiberglassed/epoxied to hold water and transfer the days needs to this bottle after treating the portion with peroxide for bacterial concerns. This bottle can sit on top of a salt pail with a hole cut in the lid, and filled with sand to give a good weight to the base.
To use a filtration system that works sufficient is VERY expensive and NONE do a great job of keeping the brine from getting caught up unless you are going to use commercial systems made for aquaculture facilities. It's not really needed with the cheap cost of the water using the water softener/epsom/baking soda culture water. (you can also use this water for growing nanno if you wish)
Having the system at 55° will slow up the metabolism so they won't need as much food and won't go through the stages as fast. After 15th molt they won't molt any more, but the water still goes brown from the feces decay.
I've had a couple of decades experience growing brine shrimp to adult in large quantities and selling them through local stores.
The most complete information on brine shrimp can be seen at Manual on the Production and Use of Live Food for Aquaculture Scroll down to section 4.0 Artemia
My brine shrimp page is at [url]http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/brineshrimp.html[/URL]
There is probably a lot I've not mentioned but at my age I'm doing good to remember the bit I do.
You can always e-mail me if you have any questions.

 

[tike]

Man rayjay that is quite the reply! Haven't digested it all yet but it looks like you did some serious research!

 

[rayjay]

Research was a lot harder back then as it was before I even got interested in a computer.
Libraries were the only source of information and fortunately the University here was helpful back then.

 

[Aquarium Co-Op]

Thank you so much, I'm sure I'll come up with some questions, but still digesting the information and will attempt some things before asking more questions.

 

[gREEF Stricken]

Any luck Cory? Or is it turning out to be prohibitive??

GS

 

[Aquarium Co-Op]

The holidays delayed brine shipping so this last friday wss the first test. Ive got them in the synthetic saltwater at the moment. So far so good.

 

[rayjay]

FWIW, they don't do any better in the synthetic saltwater than they do in the cheapie 10 parts sodium chloride water softener salt with one part epsom salts and buffered with some baking soda.
(baking soda temporarily drops pH and then settles out in the 8 range. Baking it a 300°F for a hour will make it washing soda and that will temporarily raise the pH and then settle back.)
And, even at store cost of salt, it's still going to be expensive as you have to do complete water changes when you do the clean out to remove the decaying molts and feces.
Not getting the decaying molts and feces out means poor nutrition for the brine as well as it increases the chances of nasty bacteria getting in the culture.
Well, I guess you could spend a fortune on filtration equipment like the aquaculture facilities use in their brine operations, but I don't think you will have sales large enough to cover that.
I tried a LOT of filtration methods to find an easy cheap way and after about 10 yrs I gave up and just went with water changes and scrubbing down the containers.

 

[Aquarium Co-Op]

Oh by synthetic I had meant the rocksalt, epsom salt, and baking soda mix.

 

[rayjay]

I started using rock salt, but eventually switched to using the sodium chloride evaporated pelleted water softener salt because it is so much cleaner when dissolved.
Something you might find interesting is that if you are keeping adult brine any length of time, they will produce live born nauplii.
When I do a water change and let the culture sit for a few hours to settle the crap, I siphon off the culture water and harvest the adult brine, and then I use a 150 mesh (105 micron opening) bag to recover the nauplii that pass through the brine net I use for adults.
Then I set them in a separate culture to grow out starting with live nanno at first and then going to my powders blended in water.

 

[kpiotrowski]

I seen a youtube video some years ago of a guy who had a rotations set-up of several rubbermaids. basic concept was sunpower was growing phyto in the nutrient rich water which it turn fed the brine. daily harvest of adult bring, adding fresh hatched, and water rotations.