Actually brine shrimp don't need higher salt water,
however in the wild they do, because they would be out
competed in the wild otherwise, as they are helpless
creatures that even get tangled up in hair algae.

Anthias in the wild feed on plankton that flows by them.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



George Patterson wrote on 8/22/2006 8:56 PM:
Bryan wrote:

Speaking of hatching brine... should I put them in another aquarium
to grow larger before feeding them?

Couple of problems with that. First, what will you feed the brine shrimp
to make them grow larger? Second, I've been told that they really need
higher salinity than typical marine tanks if you want to raise them.

The kicker for me is the fact that my latest book ("The Conscientious
Aquarist") says that your fish can't stay alive on brine shrimp. It's to
be used only as a transition food to get them started eating stuff like
ground clam and shrimp.

I would buy doses of live brine from an LFS and mix it with "real" food.
I would quit feeding live brine as soon as it starts eating something else.

As I said, Fenner says they eat a "fine, meaty" diet. I'll leave it to
people like Wayne to further define that, but my guess is that some
shrimp pulverized in a blender is a good candidate.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.