How To: KEEP Brine Shrimp Alive For Longer…Simplest and Cheapest Way To Hatch BBS

Hi Justin, good informative video. A couple of comments if I may: I think it’s better to talk about Artemia or brine shrimp as we did in the old days 😀 BBS really only refers to the first instar naupilius. Most recommendations are not to use an airstone as the bubbles can be too fine and trap in the shrimps feeding arms. Something else to try is decapsulating the eggs with a quick rinse in bleach and then thoroughly rinsing them before hatching. We found this improved hatch rate quite a lot. Light is also a trigger to hatching - the cysts respond to hydration and light so having a source of light shining on the hatching container improves the hatch rate and speeds it up. The inverted cone hatcheries also make a lot of sense but if the jug works for you, why change? 😃 Hatching pH is important, it should be above 9. The water should be salty, they come from hyper saline environments but you don’t need it to be as saline as they are in the wild. It is also recommended to change the water from the hatching solution as a lot of metabolites are released from hatching which can foul the water. The naupili don’t feed until their yolk is absorbed 24-48h so perhaps putting them in the fridge slows this down. I am not sure what they may be eating in the fridge but without supplemental feeding, they are not getting nutrients. Their nutritional value to the fish is then fairly low. What most growers do is enrich the brine shrimp with a diet of spirulina which you can get as powder. I have used yeast to grow them out and mine became adults and produced offspring. The lifecycle is extremely fast but does need good clean water. Getting a larger size would be of more benefit to adult fish. We used to go and harvest adults and keep them in paddling pools to feed seahorses.

Best advice about using pool salt. So much more economical. I am here in the United States and I also do baby brine shrimp. Also I feed them freeze dried bloodworm and daphnia placed in a pepper grinder and this grinds it into a powder for them small enough to eat. Great Channel

Hey Justin, another great video as always! This one I found particularly informative though, I had no idea you could store BBS like that! 😮 It will definitely come in handy for me and my GBR's. Thanks again for all the effort you put into these.

Awesome video Justin! Thank you so much for such a informative video. Will definitely be trying to hatch some brine shrimp.

Keep it up bro, top notch advice 👌 I've just started with the rams, the egg yolk was a big help ! Much love from the uk

Once again great informative video!! I didn't even think to freeze them to make them last longer! Great tips!

can you add a link to the supplies that you use? i am really interested in the larger brine shrimp eggs.

Awesome vid Justin, appreciate that you show what your doing to the camera! Most vid's they explain what they doing then all we see is their back...lol.

Very good information justin

Thank you Justin, i feed my Betta fish live brine that I get from a local owned ,not chain pet store they come in a very small condiment like cup and seem to last way more than a week. I think keeping them in the refrigerator makes them last so long. You answered my salinity question thank you again cheers.

Hi Justin Fish are all settling in nicely thank you. Good appetites and very active fish. Starting to seek their own territories in the tank. Fun to watch males with fins all up trying to look tough while females just hang about the males that they like best to investigate the tank with, looking for food. Haha! I think the main reason for the suspension of BBS eggs and aeration, is to make sure each egg receives adequate dissolved oxygen. Brine Shrimp eggs hatch best when they receive a minimum of 3ppm of dissolved oxygen during incubation. The aeration helps to break the surface tension to create an exchange between co2 in the water and allows oxygen from the air to dissolve in the water column. The suspension of the eggs also helps to keep the eggs individually separated, preventing them from sticking and binding together. Which could possibly lead to eggs not receiving adequate oxygen needed for hatching.

What size container was that to hatch the eggs in? Or does it matter?

thank you once again for a very good tip in keeping bbs.. learned a lot friend.. happy fish keeping!!!!

Hi Justin.. great info.👍 For those that have no oxygen supply to bag the bbs do you need to use it or could one use air from pump? One suggestion is that you put the tin of eggs in ziplock bag in freezer. You would only portion out like 2 weeks supply in airtight containers that you keep in fridge. Reason everytime you remove the tin from fridge condensation can occur which will reduce the hatch % over time. Plus in freezer the eggs last longer. Keep up the excellent work. Cheers...👏👏👏

Good day mate from Newfoundland Canada. Love your videos

Hey Justin, you may have already done it somewhere else in the comments. I may have missed it, but could you give us the brand and type of bbs eggs you are using and where one can find them... Thanks so much!

Excellant Justin🙂👍🏻 You know I have never hatched bbs yet…but I will very soon. The focus in my fishroom is taking me to species that will require live foods for the fry. Those species include but not limited too are wild type bettas👍🏻 Apistogrammas👍🏻 And hopefully rams👍🏻Here in Michigan usa 🇺🇸 it’s freezing cold at this time, so I can appreciate the heat in Australia 🇦🇺 Thank you mate for another fantastic video🙂

Justin - Great work, as usual! . . . Question: Do you wait until your Ram fry are free swimming to begin feeding? In addition, how long do you feed them egg yolk, before transition to BBS? Thanks!

Thank you so much for the info

Crikey, you're feeding brine shrimp to shrimp, is that cannibalism lol?! Just joking, but great video Justin! I'll find this very helpful! Thanks for the info and hope you had a great day! 👍