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Re: BBS questions
The Cooks wrote:
>
> Hello All,
>
> I have a few questions concerning BBS. First, does it help the hatch if I
> hydrate the eggs in fresh water before putting them in brine?
Definitely improves hatch on premium eggs. Harder to tell, for sure, on
poorer ones, but likely to be as helpful. Amazingly, I find they wet quicker
in RO than tap water. Unfortunately I need the tap water to keep the pH up
where they like it.
> Second, how many
> eggs {teaspoons- not individual eggs :>)} is optimum per gallon jug?
I could never use all that a gallon jug produces within the 6 hours or so
that they retain the original egg nutrition. After they molt, they are just
exercise, for the most part, as much nutritional value is gone. Once raised
to bigger size, it *is* possible to "gut load" them and get nutrition into
the fish. The BS are just an attractive delivery package, at that point.
I do up to 2 level tsp of eggs in about 1 liter of water. 1 tsp is better,
tho. [That would be 4 tsp per gallon.]
> third, how
> long can you let them settle out to separate shells before they need to be
> aerated again?
I siphon and rinse all at that point. If I *must* have some for later, they
go into a shallow tray in the refrigerator to delay molt as long as
possible.
How do you tell if they are molted to instar 2 larvae stage? Newly hatched,
they are wider than they are long. After first molt they are equally or more
long than wide. That's how I tell.
They can die quickly, in my setups. I would guess within 20 minutes most
will be gone, if not aerated.
> My needs are growing, so I need to get better/more efficient
> production from them. Is it worth the effort or is anybody having any luck
> trying to grow them to larger sizes for bigger fry/fish?
It can be done, but not cost, space or labor effective. You must gut load
them with fatty acids, protein, vitamins, and what have you to get any
benefit from home raised BS, anyway.
Even the shrimp from many inland mountain salt lakes have no nutritional
value. Some tests were run some years ago that showed that killies could not
grow on them, but did on SF Bay or GSL shrimp, where algae was thicker.
Wright
--
Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679 wright at killi dot net
http://www.atchison.com/Killifish/BAKA-WCW-10.html
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