The Cheapest, Simplest Brine Shrimp Hatcher
by Milton Toal
of Australia
Aquarticles
The cheapest, simplest hatcher? I think so.
A 1.25 litre soft drink bottle, a black poly-pipe irrigation takeoff through the
cap and the bottle bottom, an in-line tap on the bottom line and away you go. Need
continuous supply? Make three or four.
I was asked to explain how I use these, so here goes:
I fill with tap water but we have low chlorine levels. If you have chlorine strong
enough to smell you might be better using tank water, otherwise neutralise the Chlorine
with SAFE or equivalent. Testing for Chlorine is easy with a Pool Test Kit from Bunnings,
Local Pool Shop, K-Mart etc.
I stand up the bottle, with the in-line air tap off of course, fill to the top of
the label, and add two level tablespoons of rock salt and a teaspoon of eggs. Don't worry
about dissolving the salt, the air flow soon will when you invert the bottle and plug the
in-line onto your air. DO NOT FORGET TO OPEN THE TAP. BELIEVE ME, IT IS EASY TO DO BECAUSE
AS SOON AS YOU CONNECT THE AIR INLET LINE BUBBLES WILL FLOW. THEY WILL STOP WHEN THE
PRESSURE IN THE BOTTLE EQUALS THE PRESSURE IN YOUR AIR LINE. YOU MAY HAVE GONE BY THEN AND
NOTHING WILL HAPPEN IN THE HATCHER. WHEN YOU DO THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME AND YOU NOTICE THE
SAME DAY, JUST OPEN THE VALVE AND YOU SHOULD GET A HATCH ANYWAY. IF THE NEXT DAY BEFORE
YOU NOTICE, EMPTY OUT AND START AGAIN.
On my tank stands I have bottle holders which I made from rectangular plastic downpipe.
I have cut slightly oval holes in each side, large on top, smaller on the bottom with the
bottom one offset to one side so that the bottle neck sits in neatly, angled slightly so
that I can fit more in the space, one above the next and they are screwed to the uprights.
The hose attached to the bottle lid is long enough to reach to the jug that I stand on the
floor and which just neatly holds the sieves for the shrimp. I also want a good length
because I siphon back the water into the hatcher to take another cycle.
Each hatcher has a thick dark bed sock with a small hole cut in the toe to let the tap
on the bottom of the bottle pass through and pulling the sock down while you disconnect
the air line and "park" it onto the line out of the bottle bottom gets a high
concentration of shrimp near the cap. They quickly gravitate to the light. Unplug the air
inlet hose from the bottle bottom and lower it to your sieve and watch the pink
concentration.
By the way, I take three harvests from each hatcher, the first two as above and the
third about 4 days, when for some reason the shrimp do not come down to the light but hang
just under the hatched eggs. I take all the water except the tiniest bit under the eggs
then I start again.
Four hatcheries give an endless supply of shrimp for hundreds of fry at a time. My room
is heated but if you have only one or a few tanks and no way to heat your hatchery, get
some large suction cups and attach them to the hatchery with elastic bands and adhere them
to the inside of your tank. If you do this, put a longer hose on the bottom of the bottle
and take it over the side of the tank to avoid adding salt water to the tank. Hang a
little plastic cup on the outside and rest the hose end in that to avoid spills on the
floor.
For growing on, I substantially increase the alkalinity, adding more rock salt and
Epsom Salts and Bi-carb of Soda to reach a pH of about 8.4.
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