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Re: Decapsulation of brine shrimp eggs
Frank writes:
> I'm playing around with trying the above using household bleach as the
> decapsulating agent and white vinegar as the neutralizing agent. The
> problem I'm having is neutralizing the bleach. The guide I'm using
> instructs that after the eggs turn pink, strain and then soak the
> resulting mass of eggs in the vinegar to neutralize. When I attempt to
> strain the eggs, the net effect is clogging of the net. Would a coffee
> filter be just as good and clog less. I figure I could put filter an all
> in the vinegar to neutralize. Any suggstions would be appreciated.
>
I would strain the stuff through a brine shrimp net first, then nuetralize it.
A coffee filter would clog even faster than a BSnet. If you aren't getting
chlorine nuetralization with vinegar, try sodium thiosulphate. That's the
same stuff they make commercial de-chlorinator out of. It's available in bulk
cheap at photo shops as "Hypo".
When I lived in Western NY, I noticed that a certain percentage of the egg
shells melted from the very high chlorine levels in the tap water that I made
the brine out of. It doesn't work here because the local water contains
less. I suspect that a correct dose of chlorine would dissolve the eggs and
then dissipate overnight. I have been thinking about trying it., In this
arrangement, the eggs would ideally hatch after most of the Cl has dissipated,
and fresh salt and water would be required each time. This would have to be
easier than the current versions of de-encapsulation.
Bob Dixon