Decapsulating Brine Shrimp eggs
I don't know if the original person still needs this or not, but it's
good info for anyone with baby fish to know. By removing the outer
shell of shrimp eggs, you can feed it directly to fry without having to
hatch it! That's the cool part...especially when you find yourself with
fry or the fly, lol. = )~
To decapsulate Brine Shrimp eggs:
There are many ways to do this, and some ways with special chemicals,
but this seems to be the easiest.
Take two glass jars, or maybe something like a disposable plastic
container bought new.
Take a 1/4 cup of water and add 1 tablespoon of Brine Shrimp eggs.
Wait one hour and then add 1/4 cup household, unscented, regular
chlorine bleach.
Stir slowly for 5 minutes. The dark eggs will turn from dark, to an
orange color.
After about 95% of them have turned orange, then using a *Brine Shrimp
net, rinse them under the faucet well.
Have another container ready with fresh water with lots of chlorine
remover....don't be stingy here!
After rinsing well, take the net and set it into the container so that
the rinsed eggs can get a bath in the dechlorinated water. I would
adivse to stir them around a little here too. By being still in the net
you really need to make sure they all get the last bits of chlorine
off.
If you smell bleach still, add more dechlor, swoosh around and rinse
again under the tap.
Then again add to a waiting container with fresh water and extra
dechlorinator in it and dip the net with orange eggs into it again.
Swoosh around and sniff. If you still smell bleach (chlorine), add more
dechlor and repeat. I'm guess the ones that are stingy with the dechlor
would still be smelling bleach there.
Also, make sure your sniffer isn't all clogged up when doing this. You
need to have it working well too. = ) You need to be able to smell for
the chlorine smell.
Then after they're all rinsed, hang the net of eggs suspended so that
they can dry for about an hour or so. Put them into a covered plastic
container and keep in the frige. They last for 2-3 weeks.
A word of caution...remember bleach fumes can get to some people,
especially asthmatics, so take caution with the bleach fumes when
you're stirring the eggs in the bleach solution for 5 minutes.
Feeding the eggs this way is higher in nutrition then if you would have
hatched them too.
Less fuss, better for the fish.
Cool beans.
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