How to Raise Freshwater Brine Shrimp

Hatching Brine Shrimp

• 1

  Cut the bottoms out of the two soda bottles. Turn them upside down. The bottles will be used separately to hold shrimp to feed your fish and as a hatchery for your brine shrimp.

• 2

  Attach the aeration tube from the air pump to the bottom of the bottle you will use for hatching. Put one liter of water into the hatching bottle. Add 1 2/3 tbsp. marine salt for every liter of water.

• 3

  Keep the water in a room where the temperature is at least 70 degrees F. The optimal hatching temperature is 80 to 82 degrees F. Turn on the aquarium air pump.

• 4

  Add 1/2 tsp. of cysts, or brine shrimp eggs, for each liter of water. More than this will result in a smaller hatch rate. Clamp the utility light to a spot where it will shine on the hatching bottle. Light helps maximize the conditions for hatching.

• 5

  Check the bottle after a few hours. Stir the water gently so cysts that have floated to the top or gotten stuck to the side of the bottle will be dislodged. Hatching will be complete after 24 to 36 hours. If you keep the temperature at 80 to 82 degrees F, hatching will be complete after 24 hours. Shells of the eggs will mostly float to the top, while the baby brine shrimp will gather around the neck at the bottom of the bottle.

• 6

  Clear the egg shells floating at the top of the water aside, then insert the siphon tube to draw water out of the bottom of the bottle through the brine shrimp net. This will capture most of the hatchlings. If you plan to raise some brine shrimp to adulthood, use the cement mixing bucket to capture this water after it passes through the net that will capture the hatchlings.

• 7

  Rinse the brine shrimp thoroughly with fresh water under the faucet. After you have rinsed them, you can feed some to your fish and return others to the second bottle, which should have the same mixture of water and marine salt as the first. This is your feeding bottle. When you want to do another feeding, use the brine shrimp net to capture more. After 24 hours, the brine shrimp lose much of their nutritional value for your fish, so it is best to start a new batch as soon as you have hatched the first.

Cultivating Brine Shrimp

• 8

  Keep the bucket you have saved used hatchery water indoors until late spring, or when the temperature gets consistently at least into the upper 70s during the day. Then set it outside in a spot where it will get plenty of sun during the day.

• 9

  Add cysts to the water you already have in the bucket. Use 1/2 tsp. or less of cysts for every liter of water in the bucket. You can use less -- or even none -- because the old water has plenty of unhatched eggs, and these brine shrimp will grow to adulthood and reproduce.

• 10

  Add a little marine salt and extra water if you want, but it is not necessary. Check the pH of the water. If it gets below 7.0, add 1/2 tsp. of Epsom salt or magnesium sulfate for every liter of water to raise it up to 8.0.

• 11

  Check the bucket every few days. Within two weeks, it should be brimming with adult brine shrimp, even if you just let it sit -- and despite any freshwater rain that comes in between.