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Re: Live Foods Digest V1 #131
> From: Mach Fukada <fukada at hawaii_edu>
> Just a quick question regarding the culture of adult brine shrimp. I
> have been trying to work out the bugs in rearing them
(snip)
> using a 10:2:1 (Seal salt:Epsome TBS Salts:Baking Soda per gallon of
> Water).
Charlie Grimes notes that the Great Salt lake hatching areas may have a
salinity/ specific gravity as high as 1.040 or even 1.050. This is
double that of sea water. I wonder if we keep our brines shrimp in too
low a salnity. Use a cheap hydrometer to check your
water.
> I have been feeding them a mixture of ground spirulina tablests
> and bakers yeast. Are there any other things that I can feed them
> that will work better.
Almost anything organic will probably work - if in moderation so the
oxygen supply is not depleated. If it works with daphnia, it should work
with brine shrimp.
Rosario LaCorte astonished us some years back at the Michiana Killie
Carnival by suggesting that when some cardboard fell into a bucket with
some left over b.s. hatching water, he got a pretty good crop off of
that bucket and began using cardboard as food for the brine shrimp.
As a caution, I would wonder what is in with the recycled cardboard
boxes.
> I have them in an area under an eave to prevent rain
> from flooding it, but this cuts down the sunlight and greenwater.
It is hard to balance sunlight and moderate temperatures. Experiment.
Also try to leave the culture where it will get as much of a breeze as
it can without cooking.
> maybe I need a tank bigger than 20 gallons.
This is very possible. Space is probably at a premium, but a container
with lots of surface area is also important. Pond and garden stores will
have some fairly shallow containers. Almost too shallow for Illinois
summers (because they over heat in the sun) but useful are these black
plastic "super tubs" about 8 inches deep by roughly 4 feet by 2.5 feet.
I put them under the trees in the back yard because they catch the sun
in the leaf=less months and are sheltered in summer. Leaves, a useful
medium in their own right, have to be mostly removed because too many
will suck the O2 right out when they decay.
I am continually amazed by people who seem to quite successfully raise
live food in these "kiddie swimming pools." I don't like not being able
to reach every part of them from the side, but it seems hard to argue
with the advantages of volume and surface area.
If it is in an area where there is no danger of little children falling
in, it is also possible to fill a variety of large containers with
plastic (visquine -sp.) or to even dig a hole and line it with the
plastic - I prefer clear so it doesn't gather as much heat as black. The
same fencing precautions as would be taken with fish ponds or swimming
pools should be taken so little kids don't fall in.
All those outside containers should also be full enough that birds and
small furry creatures that fall in can climb out. It is amazing and sad
what has fallen in over the last couple of decades here. Yoy will not
have this with salt water, but sometimes in freshwater containers on
rare occasions we get various amphibians leaving their eggs. I let them
grow up before going back to harvesting for the fish.
Maybe this will be a little help....or a little for the thread...
All the best!
Scott Davis