BBS hatchery-removing eggs?

[BeckyFish97]

Hi
I recently started my brine shrimp hatchery, and they are now at a nice size to feed to my baby platy's (growing them out before starting my ohm spawn) but before I feed them I wanted to check, is it safe to feed the brine shrimp to them with some egg shells in there? or do I need to get rid of the egg shells?If I do how do I seperate the eggs?Also, probably a crazy question but I can't just suck the salt solution out with the BBS too can I?I have to rinse them first, yes?Also there don't seem to be many there for some reason?and there was supposed to be over 100 eggs in the packet?

[Oldfishlady]

If BBS is going to be the only food source for the fish-its best to feed newly hatched BBS (NHBBS) with their yolk sac intact for best nutrition-especially with Betta fry.....

When the BBS first hatch you shouldn't have that many shell-the older the BBS the more shells you will get due to them molting.

Usually when first hatched the shells and unhatched eggs will either float or rest at the bottom of the hatchery-this depends on the type of hatchery you used.

I like to harvest my NHBBS with a section of airline hose I have attached to a couple of chopsticks to make more ridged and siphon them off into a brine shrimp net that I have resting over an empty container to catch the water-(I dump this water back into the hatchery).

I then rinse the NHBBS under running water-then fill the now empty/rinsed container with dechlorinated like temp water and rest the NHBBS still in the brine shrimp net in this water-using an eyedropper to collect and target feed the fry.

[BeckyFish97]

Ok thanks just wanted to check, I have another set of 5 bags of eggs, lol should only have had two more but the people sent another 3 bags and never charged us for them so what the hey lol their mistake, I will probably hatch another set into the hatchery nearer the time :) these were just a tester for my platys if they worked out :)

[Oldfishlady]

Brine shrimp eggs can vary in the hatch rate-if the eggs get old they don't hatch as well and if you have high Zinc in your source water that can cause a low hatch rate too....You can use dechlorinator that cover heavy metals to help with any Zinc issue-but old eggs not a lot can be done...

Good that you are practicing at hatching the BBS-this is always a good idea...

What kind of hatchery are you using and how are you hatching them-maybe we can help by giving you some tips to increase hatch rate...that is, if its not related to old eggs.....

[jeffegg2]

Here is a hatchery that I use: but I use 2 liter bottles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8sNx9zTOnQ

Just turn off the bubbles for about 4 minutes, the egg shells will float to the surface. Stick your baster through to the bottom and suck some bbs. I lay the brine shrimp net over the lip of the hatchery and squirt the bbs into it. You will see them as pink stuff. Then I invert the net into the top of the tank....

Enjoy!!
Jeff.

Note: The author of that video uses a lot more bbs eggs than I do. I try to use enough for two days feeding, and have a new batch hatching on the second day so I have a fresh supply of NEWLY hatched bbs when that one is done! I do seem to have a few stragglers in the batch when I dump them If you try to stretch the batch too long they all seem to die and go bad anyways.

[BeckyFish97]

Thanks :)