BBS Hatching

Passionfish wrote:

I met a guy that was a MAS member YEARS ago. He had purchased a case of eggs at meeting for $8 a lb and he kept cans in the freezer. Eggs hatched for many years. When he ran out eggs were $40 a lb.

Those were the days. When I had my big angelish breeding thing going on about 16 - 20 years ago, I was getting high quality Utah eggs for about $10 a pound. I fed baby brine in large quantities to lots of fish back then, including angelfish up to some surprisingly large sizes.

I have not bought any eggs for a while now (havn't been doing too much breeding, and I have some eggs in the freezer), but I was pretty shocked when the eggs went up to $40 a pound or so. I don't even know what good quality eggs are selling for now.

Hatching Brine Shrimp should not be that hard gang.
I use homemade 2 ltr bottle hatcheries, enclosed in a styro with an elderly 18" flourescent lamp in the back.
They hold 5 cups of water.
Water doesn't matter, I have hatched in RO, waste water and tap water. Tap is easiest AND the residual clorine helps the shells soften, they hatch faster and any clorine is disipated from the aeration.
Fill hatchery 1/2 full of water and add eggs, about 1/2 teaspoon is alot.
Allow the eggs to bubble 1/2 hour, dried eggs are not round, this allow them to rehydrate.
Add 1 teaspoon Pickling Salt PER cup, for me thats 5 teaspoons.
Fill the hatchery with water, put in the box were there is light and heat for 18-20 hours.
Close the airline, the hatched BBS will sink to the bottom, shells float to the top, drain after <15 minutes (when most within an inch or 2 from the bottom) into a net, rinse then wash in a container.
Feed what the fish need and store the container in refrigerator (good for 2 days, until water clouds)
I'd say good luck but it's not needed, if you follow the directions you will be successful.
Chuck

This is all good advice (the light, and the adding of eggs before salt, etc), but with good quality eggs one can get good results even simpler than this.

Back when I had a dozen breeding pairs and a thousand or so younger angelfish in the basement in various stages of growth at any given point in time, when top quality brine shrimp eggs were cheap, I hatched out a tablespoon or two (or more) of eggs a day using big gallon sized jars. The jars were on a shelf beneath some tanks (with no special lighting other than incidental light from the tanks). I used tap water and rock salt (e.g. the stuff sold in big bags for melting ice and for making ice cream). I dumped everything in at once (otherwise it would not get done because of time constraints). And I aerated like crazy - that is an important thing.... really strong aeration. I had an airline with a rock held on near the end with a rubber band to keep it down. No air stone (it would clog too fast), and air just blasting out of the airline.

In the summer the eggs would hatch in a day, so I set up one jar each day and harvested the next. In the winter, with unheated jars, it would take two days for the eggs to hatch, so I set up a jar each day but harvested it two days later - each day there was a jar ready for harvest.

Light is supposed to improve hatch rate, and in a perfect world I'd have bright lighting for my hatching containers, but I got GREAT hatches (high hatch rate and the eggshells and baby shrimp separated really well) in my very simple hatching setups.

If the hatch rate is bad (and it is difficult to separate eggs from baby shrimp because the eggs don't float well) but salinity is correct, the jar is clean, and there is LOTS of aeration, then my first thought would be that the problem is low quality eggs.

It looks likes theres too many pages to read, so ill just assume people are talking about how they hatch bbs..? ~
Thought id throw in my 2 cents. I dont have mass amount of frys, only about 100 a month ago, so i only hatch a few at a time. I had them in a 16g eclipse. I bought one of those 8feet plastic tube that holds fluorescent tubes T12s, made some egg tumbers out of it and cut about 10“ to make a bbs hatchery. the plastic tube came with caps so i left one of the cap on it, and poke a hold at the end of the cap to inset an airline in. Insert airline about half inch in, and seal the cap and airline with a glue gun. I place the tube into the tank and held it in place against the side of the tank with 2 suction cup held together by a rubber band. Also made sure the top of the tube was slightly above the tanks water level. Then i add bbs eggs in (the prepackage w. Salt kind), connect the end of the airline to a pump, turn air on and eggs were ready in less than 24 hours.
Water was at 85F, regular tap water, about 400ppm, 8+ ph.
When ready to feed, i just turn off air, use a straw or cut an extra airline and use it to siphon eggs from bottom and feed. Afterwards i would add tank water in to refill the hatchery water level up, and add more eggs in if needed.
Worked pretty good for me, also didnt have to worry about lighting or temperature in the hatchery like before when i was trying the upside down pop method.

chawks wrote:

Hatching Brine Shrimp should not be that hard gang....I'd say good luck but it's not needed...
Chuck

Bear in mind that Chuck's brine shrimp hatchery was the prototype design for the cockpit of a space capsule. A degree in engineering may help.

Willie

willie wrote:

chawks wrote:

Hatching Brine Shrimp should not be that hard gang....I'd say good luck but it's not needed...
Chuck

Bear in mind that Chuck's brine shrimp hatchery was the prototype design for the cockpit of a space capsule. A degree in engineering may help.

Willie

True but my doctoral thesis from Rocky Hollow Tech - "Duck Tape - The Engine that drives Western Civilization" has been credited with advancing Mechanical Engineering in not only the space program, stealth technology and nuclear plant design. I remain humble though it's difficult considering my contribution to society.

Chuck

PS Maybe it's time to redux Shrimp Wars - Return of the King, solitary on my mountaintop I don my crown no challenger in sight.

chawks wrote:

Hatching Brine Shrimp should not be that hard gang.
I use homemade 2 ltr bottle hatcheries, enclosed in a styro with an elderly 18" flourescent lamp in the back.
They hold 5 cups of water.
Water doesn't matter, I have hatched in RO, waste water and tap water. Tap is easiest AND the residual clorine helps the shells soften, they hatch faster and any clorine is disipated from the aeration.
Fill hatchery 1/2 full of water and add eggs, about 1/2 teaspoon is alot.
Allow the eggs to bubble 1/2 hour, dried eggs are not round, this allow them to rehydrate.
Add 1 teaspoon Pickling Salt PER cup, for me thats 5 teaspoons.
Fill the hatchery with water, put in the box were there is light and heat for 18-20 hours.
Close the airline, the hatched BBS will sink to the bottom, shells float to the top, drain after <15 minutes (when most within an inch or 2 from the bottom) into a net, rinse then wash in a container.
Feed what the fish need and store the container in refrigerator (good for 2 days, until water clouds)
I'd say good luck but it's not needed, if you follow the directions you will be successful.
Chuck

two thumbs up for Chiuck. BBS are easy to hatch and keep

Glad to help Tony

Chuck

i usually keep temp under 80. keep it from 70-80. When you go too warm you turn them into egg stew. =D Another thing i find is that add the dechlorinator first and salt and then add the egg. do not over crowd too much. half a teaspoon per liter is good. bad eggs can lead to low hatch rate too. too low aeration leads to less hatching too. so I normally use full blast. =D

Still having problem with the bbs hatching? Or are you an expert now? Funny thing is the first time i read your thread, i was like "BBS DUMBASS?" really? Such thing? I used to hatch it all the time with success until after reading your thread, i needed to hatch some bbs for my piranha frys and oh boy, i felt i was a "BBS DUMBASS" Good thing i went out to buy some from Tony's Bettashop which build my confidence and BOOM, i am a BBS hatching PRO!

Forgot to mention, for a whole week i could not even hatch one. I tried it with cold water, warm water, room temperature, aquarium water..you name it. Oh and it was a year since i last done it. I even went back to watch the same clip i did then and still I FAILED! Don't know what i did wrong but seems like everything i am doing is making my bbs hatch, same process..warm water, aquarium water, and yes, cold water which took WAY long to hatch, it had to change to room temperature before it actually hatched.