[Betowess]

This little Artemia hatchery dish works great. It has a small hole in the top with a small mesh strainer to pickup the hatched baby brine shrimp (nauplii). The unwanted cysts stay in the outer rings and the baby brine shrimp hatchlings swim (wiggle) toward the light allowed in by the hole. A 1/4 teaspoon of eggs yields about 100,000 nauplii and my 25 nine day old Boesemani Rainbowfish fry love eating them. If you are raising fry, I highly recommend this little rig. Its fun to see the little buggers wriggling around and eaten by my fat fry. The size of the plastic dish is about 8 inches diameter by 2 inches deep so it doesn't take up much space.
Here is a quote from their website and a link.

http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c1/Hatchery-Dish-p183.html

We first saw this brine shrimp egg hatchery in Kowloon, Hong Kong and were instantly intrigued by its strange shape. With some misgivings about the functionality of the "breeding dish," I brought it home and tried it. I was amazed at the results in 24 hours!

With absolutely no aeration, air tubing, direct light or heat, my yields were as good as if I had used a more elaborate set-up. With a premeasured charge of about 0.4 grams of dry cysts, the Hatchery Dish yielded over 100,000 baby brine shrimp.

A particularly nice feature of the shallow, dish-like shape of the Hatchery is the naturally occurring separation of the newly hatched nauplii (baby brine shrimp) from shells and unhatched egg - resulting in a very clean harvest.

No siphoning or net is required. This is truly a great product for hobbyists!

 

[epicfish]

No aeration, etc...? I know the site says that the yield is the same as other techniques, but have you seen the same, Betowess?

Very interested in this setup...just want to know if I should spend the extra effort so that I don't waste any of this new A++ grade-95%-hatch-rate brine shrimp eggs I was given by a friend.

 

[Betowess]

The dish is flat and wide with a ~2 inch open hole so that is the aeration. It works. I can't prove the stated yields, but I have a boatload of nauplii. Just warm water below 90 degree and I mixed 5 teaspoons of Instant Ocean brand salt with a quart of water. I used most of the quart to fill the dish to the fill mark. Dumped in the eggs in the outer rings ( around 1/4 teaspoon) and in 24 hours had a boatload of wrigglers. Best if in a warm window sill or with a little spotlight on it. And ambient room temp should be "warm". I have a 60 watt with silver reflector a couple feet above, pointed down at the dish.

There are still a bunch hatching 36 hours later, so one tray could last a couple of days worth of feeding. And I read one should sterilize the tray with a mild bleach rinse before reusing. Because soap can leave a residue harmful to next hatch - that is why they recommend a bleach dip. Yeah, this thing works and its EASY. :thumbsup: This unit I got from Brineshrimp Direct is perfect for a one or two small fry tanks.

FYI, I also saw some cool hatchery's for bigger volumes on EBAY which were made out of PVC to hold two to three quart plastic pop bottles, depending on the model. They only require an airpump and don't include the pop bottles used. With those, you can have a continuous supply, but I don't quite get how they work without seeing them in action.

 

[fredyk]

~resisting the urge to go shopping on line for shrimp hatchery~~.....

 

[fredyk]

placed order for shrimp hatchery. :bounce:

 

[Poohbee]

can this thing be floated on top of the aquarium? Or do you just leave it on a table somewhere warm with light. The reason I ask is because I was looking for an easy to maintain shrimp hatchery and saw some "in tank" hatcheries on sale at bigals and at drs foster and smith that looked like they were nice units.

 

[Betowess]

can this thing be floated on top of the aquarium? Or do you just leave it on a table somewhere warm with light. The reason I ask is because I was looking for an easy to maintain shrimp hatchery and saw some "in tank" hatcheries on sale at bigals and at drs foster and smith that looked like they were nice units.

I doubt it, unless you put it in a little bigger container. Because its about 3/4 full of almost a quart of water. But it should work inside a slightly larger, deeper plastic container . That is a good idea. I may try that out tonight. I need to start another hatch. 76 degree water would be a perfect temp and the black plastic would pick up more heat, hopefully not too much.

That said, mine worked fine on a table with a little reflector light on top. The directions don't call for a light, but it helps attract the nauplii to the center and kept it a little warmer in a cool room.

 

[unirdna]

I'm intrigued. Too bad I'm not raising angels and rams anymore.....

 

[epicfish]

I have a bunch of extra BBS eggs...so why not feed my tetras with them?

Placed an order for one too. =)

 

[Betowess]

You'll like this little dish. Keeps the egg cysts separated almost 100% and my fry can't keep up with the volume. About 25 Boesemani approaching two weeks old. I'm sure they'll be able to eat them all once they are a few weeks older.

But its kind of sad seeing all those one hour old baby shrimps getting massacred. :angel:

 

[Khandurian]

Since you have one of these, could you post some better pictures of this thing? I have seen that on there for quite awhile but I have never seen any decent photos of this thing.

 

[Betowess]

OK, here are some quick pics...

Hatchery (8 inch by 2 inch tall) with a 2 inch opening. Notice the catching net/sieve.

With nauplii catcher pulled out. Notice the yellow baby brine shrimps...

Here I popped off the top. There are a 1/4 teaspoon of hatched and unhatched eggs cysts in there. That is suppose to be about 100,000 baby brine shrimp with a 90% hatch rate. Cost is about .06 per hatch if you only purchase a 1.75 ounces package (50 grams). And way less per hatch if you buy a half pound of eggs. I think I should get about 100 hatches out of a 50 gram package.

The shimp swim under the white rings to the light source to which they are attracted. Very few of the cysts get in with the eggs as long as you put the eggs in the outer area.

Closeup of catching device... Those are all alive baby brine shrimp (nauplii) in there. I have already pulled out three feedings today and more are hatching!

Extreme close crop of baby brine shrimps swimming in catching sieve. Each of those little specs is a baby brine shrimp wriggling around. Fish LOVE them. roud:

 

[distrbd]

To tell you the Truth I have been seriously thinking about buying this hatchery device ever since you brought it up in your first post,it looks like a well made and effective product worth paying the higher shipping charge to Canada.
how long does a package of those brine shrimp eggs last you?

 

[Betowess]

About 100 hatches for the $6.00 (USD) 1.75 oz or 50 gram package. Maybe a hatch everyother day at the most, so 200 to 300 days. But they sell bigger quantities.

 

[CampCreekTexas]

So you don't have to plug it in or anything? Just the ambient heat of the room makes the shrimp hatch and then they swim towards the light coming through the hole in the top, separating themselves from the unhatched eggs and egg shells? That's COOL! I think I'm going to have to get one now for my betta fry.

 

[epicfish]

So basically $12 in eggs will for sure last you a year.

 

[Betowess]

So you don't have to plug it in or anything? Just the ambient heat of the room makes the shrimp hatch and then they swim towards the light coming through the hole in the top, separating themselves from the unhatched eggs and egg shells? That's COOL! I think I'm going to have to get one now for my betta fry.

Yeah, you got it. Its too easy! Sometimes is isn't even 24 hours. I had some hatch in about 12 hours, but it continues for a couple of days, but peaks around 24 hours and last past 36 hours.

So basically $12 in eggs will for sure last you a year.

Epic, That is true. I suppose if one wanted to really crank and had a few/multiple t tanks of fry in a fish room, one of the hatchery offerings on Ebay with multiple bottles might be better. But the half pound size of brine shrimp eggs is a better deal on cost ($10.95), though I don't know how long the eggs are viable... But each hatch is pretty good for two days worth of food for one to two tanks of fry - or small adults I suppose.
http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c1/c2/Grade-A-Brine-Shrimp-Eggs-c20.html

 

[Khandurian]

Well thank you for the pics!

 

[CampCreekTexas]

Yes, thank you for the pics, Betowess! And posting all the info on it. This is just too cool of a gadget ~ and seems lots easier than the plastic-bottle-with-air-line-and-light-then-siphon-them-off method that wastes quite a few unhatched eggs. I think I'll be starting another batch of fry earlier than I thought just so I can play with this thing.

 

[epicfish]

Wow, if 1.75 ounces at $6 will last say...150 days, then the 8 ounce can will last 4.5 times longer, so 675 days...for $11. Hmm...I think I spend more on that for flake food a year! And this is *live* food.

Hurrah for a new food source.