Brine Shrimp Hatchery DIY

Brine shrimp technically aren't shrimp, but they do make great food for fish, especially fry and carnivorous fish with small mouths, such as sea horses. Although hatched brine shrimp can be bought from pet stores, you need to buy in bulk and the tank water could be questionable. Since brine shrimp eggs can go years before hatching, many aquarium hobbyists prefer to run their own hatcheries.

  1. Materials Needed

    • If you are only feeding a few fish or one clutch of fry, then you only need an empty 1- or 2-liter water bottle, an air hose, an air pump, some aquarium sea salt and some brine shrimp eggs. If you have many more fish to feed, then you can set up a 5- to 20-gallon tank with an air hose and air pump. Filtration is not necessary and will most likely kill the brine shrimp. Do not use any bottles or air hose that have been washed with detergents, as these chemicals could leech out and kill the shrimp.

    Procedure

    • Bernice Brewster and Nick Fletcher write in "Goldfish" (2004) to add 1-1/2 tsp. of aquarium sea salt for every liter of fresh tap water. Now add 1/4 tsp. of brine shrimp eggs. Attach a clean air hose to an air pump at one end and place the other end into the tank or bottle. Make sure the air hose is not curled up against the side of the bottle so that it blocks any air flow into the water. In 36 hours, the eggs will have hatched and the brine shrimp are ready to be used as food. Remove the air hose for easier collection. If the brine shrimp are being fed to freshwater fish, then rinse the brine shrimp with fresh tap water.

    Other Tips

    • Brine shrimp eggs need a water temperature of 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Brine shrimp eggs need to be kept completely dry before use, since moisture encourages them to hatch. Frank Indiviglio writes in "The Everything Aquarium Book" (2006) that the best food to give to brine shrimp are algae wafers and liquid food for saltwater invertebrates such as cleaner shrimp. Other acceptable foods are egg yolk or wheat powder. As for your adult fish, they should be given other foods to eat because brine shrimp will not fulfill all of their nutritional needs.