aquarium salt and hatching bbs

[lauraf]

I had been using a fine grained aquarium salt for hatching my baby brine shrimp, and kinda eyeballing the amount. Recently I accidentally bought a very coarse grained kind of aquarium salt. I figured, okay, it'll take a little longer to dissolve, but otherwise shouldn't be a problem. Wrong. I can't seem to get any eggs to hatch now! There's only a few sad looking bbs hanging out at the top of the jar . . . . Do I need to increase the amount of salt???? Is there any difference between kinds of aquarium salt, other than the grain size?

 

[Doomhed]

you dont actually need any salt to hatch baby brine shrimp. My good ol buddy wayne has a full set of instructions on his web page listed in my sig, including a home-made hatchery that made it so he would only get completely de-shelled shrimp for his baby fish.

 

[lauraf]

Thanks! Can too much salt prevent hatching?

 

[Lotus]

Too much or too little can prevent them from hatching. You'll need to use a higher volume of the larger grained salt to get the same salinity. It should have an amount on the side of the box recommended for brine shrimp.

 

[lauraf]

Lotus, thank you for your answer! You really did answer my query about the salt grains! Yay - I heart you.
I really felt that I was dosing improperly with this larger grained salt. My aquarium salt box doesn't have any recommendations on amounts for brine shrimp though. Since my angel fry are now over 10 weeks old, and taking frozen bbs, solid sinking wafers and chopped frozen bloodworms, maybe I'll take a break on hatching bbs? This question belongs in another thread, I know, but is it okay for my wee angels to be weaned completely from the live bbs?

 

[Doomhed]

again, if you go to waynes this and that he has instructions how to hatch them without salt. literally zero salt. they survive just fine and when I used it I had a pretty good hatching rate.

 

[OrangeCones]

This question belongs in another thread, I know, but is it okay for my wee angels to be weaned completely from the live bbs?

To answer your question, laura, yes, I believe it is fine to wean them from live bbs. A varied diet, when they are large enough to eat it, is better.

 

[lauraf]

Doomhed, thanks for your link to Wayne's instructions - next time I set up a bbs hatchery, I will try this version.
But FYI, my bbs did hatch with the large grained salt - I just needed to add more, as per Lotus' advice, and wait about an extra ten hours for same result I had previously.
However, as my angel babies are old enough to eat other foods, as per OC's advice, I am retiring the bbs hatchery, to my husband's delight. Two less noisy bubbling containers in our kitchen!
Anything more on the progress of my angel babies' diet will be now appropriately found in the breeding thread.
Cheers!