More babies!

[Karen Garza]

This morning when I went to feed the 5 guppy fry that were born last
week I found 7 more fry swimming around the tank. I think they are Platy
fry. One of the fry got eaten by another fish while I was trying to
catch it. I went shopping today for a brine shrimp hatchery and brine
shrimp eggs but none of the LFS's had any :-( Maybe I'll order one, or
just make one myself. Are there instructions online for making the
hatchery? Where can I get the eggs?
Thanks

Karen

[bannor]

Any container quart size or bigger will work, clear glass is better or
maybe even an empty and well rinsed 2 liter soda bottle.

You will need an air pump and air stone.

Mix 1 - 2 tablespoons of aquarium salt to 1 quart of water. Water
should be around 80 degrees farenhet.

add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of brine shrimp eggs and insert the airstone.
wait between 24 - 36 hours, remove airstone, place a light near the
bottom of the container on the outside... wait about 15 minutes or so
for the egg shells to float to top, the baby brine shrimp will collect
close to the light. Use a piece of airling tubing to syphon the
hatched shrimp out without getting any of the shells. You should run
that syphon output into either a) a baby brine shrimp net or other
very very fine cloth sieve. After you have the shrimp in the net or
cloth, rinse well with either tank water or declorinated water... then
just swish the net in the tank with the fish to get the baby shrimp
out.

Petco and Petsmart both carry brine shrimp eggs, Petsmart also usually
has a brine shrimp hatchery that works very well. It is a small black
box that holds about 3 cups of water... has a lid with a recessed hole
that will hold a small pill bottle upside down in the top. you fill
the pill bottle with clean fresh water after hatching the eggs, invert
it over the hole and place a light above it... the advantage to this
is that the shrimp are already rinsed when they cross from the salt
water into the fresh water in the pill bottle... after collecting the
shrimp, you just pour that bottle directly into your fish tank... no
fuss, no muss...


On Sat, 14 Feb 2004 18:55:31 GMT, Karen Garza >
wrote:

>This morning when I went to feed the 5 guppy fry that were born last
>week I found 7 more fry swimming around the tank. I think they are Platy
>fry. One of the fry got eaten by another fish while I was trying to
>catch it. I went shopping today for a brine shrimp hatchery and brine
>shrimp eggs but none of the LFS's had any :-( Maybe I'll order one, or
>just make one myself. Are there instructions online for making the
>hatchery? Where can I get the eggs?
>Thanks
>
>Karen

[~*~ Vosklady ~*~]

"Karen Garza" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> This morning when I went to feed the 5 guppy fry that were born last
> week I found 7 more fry swimming around the tank. I think they are Platy
> fry. One of the fry got eaten by another fish while I was trying to
> catch it. I went shopping today for a brine shrimp hatchery and brine
> shrimp eggs but none of the LFS's had any :-( Maybe I'll order one, or
> just make one myself. Are there instructions online for making the
> hatchery? Where can I get the eggs?
> Thanks
>
> Karen
>

Hi Karen . . . :)

When I used to breed/raise mollies I would feed them decapsulated brine
shrimp eggs, meaning these eggs are non-hatching and they last a long time.
I got mine from BrineShrimp Direct, and have been buying from them for quite
some time . . . a great company IMO. :)

To feed the fry with these, you'd just take a toothpick, dip it into the
water, dab off any excess water, dip the moist toothpick end into the eggs
then touch this toothpick end to the water. The eggs will come off easily
and this method will assure you don't overfeed the fry.

Further info from the BrineShrimp Direct site:

==========================================
Decapsulated Brine Shrimp Eggs:

Also known as 'topless' or shell free, these brine shrimp eggs have
been decapsulated prior to dehydration. This means that we have
chemically removed or "oxidized" the outer shell or chorion using a
strong chlorine solution. This leaves only the thin hatching membrane
surrounding the unhatched brine shrimp embryo. The decapsulated
eggs are then thoroughly rinsed and the remaining chlorine is neutralized.
The
eggs are dehydrated and vacuum-packed (for long shelf life).

Non hatching decapsulated eggs are fed directly, without the necessity and
downtime of hatching. Decapsulated eggs have a higher energy and
nutritional value than a live brine shrimp nauplii. Since these eggs are
non-hatching, no energy is consumed in the hatching process and lipids,
amino acids, and enzymes are left intact. Simply rehydrate the decapsulated
brine shrimp eggs for a few minutes in fresh water and feed directly to your
baby fish or reef tank. (A little bit of these goes a long way.)
==========================================

Here is their main page: http://brineshrimpdirect.com/

Here is the page where the decapsulated brine shrimp eggs are:

http://brineshrimpdirect.com/decapsulated-brine-shrimp.html

Hope this Helps! :)

Regards,

~*~ Vosklady ~*~