Baby brine shrimps (bbs) are excellent first food for betta fries, containing high amount of protein, low cost as well as easy to hatch. First, get your hand on the highest quality brine shrimp eggs you can find with above 90% hatch rate. Ensure that the local fish shop store them in a cool environment, preferably in a chiller as bbs eggs deteriorate quickly in high temperature. There are many online shops and suppliers of fish feed selling high hatch rate brine shrimp eggs, they should probably appear among the google advertisements on this page.
Add a tablespoon of aquarium salt and about a tablespoon or less of brine shrimp eggs into a 1.2L soda bottle, cutaway at the top and fill it up. Tap water will do, no need for dechlorination. I realise that 1/2 table spoon to 1 spoon salt works best, any more and my hatch rate decreases substantially. Also one level table spoon full off brine shrimp eggs is the maximun amount I will use for one single soda bottle hatchery.
Aerate the brine shrimp eggs with a simple pump and airstone for 24hrs at room temperature. Hatching time will vary according to temperature. I aerate them for at least 24hrs and obtain a good hatch rate. Twin hatcheries for twice a day feeding, morning and night. Sometimes I run 3 hatcheries to harvest excess baby brine shrimps which I will harvest and freeze for emergency fry food.
When the brine shrimps have hatched, remove airstone and let the hatchery settle for about 5 minutes. Empty bbs shells will float to the top and the hatched shrimps sink to the bottom. Siphon the shrimps with an air tube and gravity. I find the stiffer plastic type air tube easier for this task as they are more rigid then the soft rubber type I use for air pumps. Some unhatched eggs and empy egg shells might be siphoned with the shrimps but in does not pose a problem for the fries in low amount. So far I have not observed any fries developing swimming bladder disorders from consuming unhatched eggs or casings in the 4 spawns that were raised entirely on baby brine shrimps for the first month.
Rinse the harvested brine shrimps in a fine mesh brine shrimp net under tap water for a few seconds and feed direct to your fries. One table spoon of bbs eggs produce much more then needed for an average spawn of betta spawn until they are able to feed on chopped tubifex worms.
Hi, I just completed a school project on breeding betta. My fry have hatched although many have died. May I know if it is necessary to place water plants in the fry tank? Also, how do you keep your tanks so clean? I tried to grow the bbs for my fry though I used an expired bottle of eggs. Does it matter?Cause I have no bbs growing after 48 hours. Sorry for the flow of questions. Will appreciate your help alot.
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