PlanetCatfish.com

Hi there I have a brine shrimp question that Im struggling to find an answer to on the internet.

- For feeding the main community tank (not fry) should I be giving them newly hatched brine shrimp (more nutritious) or feeding my brine shrimp so they get adult size then giving them to the fish? If I give them newly hatched I have to put more cysts in so they get a more substantial meal.

- If I feed the brine shrimp daily to bring them to adult size, how much food should I be giving them in a 5 litre bottle.

- When adult size do they breed? If so can you be more "efficient" with the amount of cysts you use.

Anyone hatch their own who could tell me the method they use I would be grateful.

Kotty

Your plan works; raising brine shrimp and feeding those, but it's a lot of work, and actually "the long way round" to solve your problem: good food for your fish.

Artemia's are wonderful fry-food and of course food for adult plancton eaters. There aren't many true plancton eating cats, however. Glass catfishes will definitely appreciate the effort of feeding them with fresh Artemia nauplii; fish like Physailia, Neetropius, Eutropiellus and Kryptopterus spring to mind.

You can save yorself tons of work by feeding other sizable crustaceans to your (cat) fish that have more size and/or nutrients, such as Cyclops, Daphnia, Mysis, Gammarus etc. All of whom have more chitine and all of whom are in general better for your fish, not in the least because they encounter those prey in the wild!

Artemia is quite slimy. It has evolved in a very salty environment with no enemies (except for Flamingo's?) and has only a very thin exoskeleton. If cyclops or other crustaceans were as easily available for hatching o-one would have bothered with Artemia, I think.n
But still, the nauplii are excellent food for tiny fish and fry.

These other sizeable crustaceans you speak of, do you buy them from the fish shop as a weekly treat or can I practically cultivate them myself?

first off, where do you live, Kotty? If you live in a non-polluted land, at least daphnia and cyclops and perhaps even gammarus can be caught. Make a net from a bamboo-stick (to get length), an old aquariumnet and a pantyhose; this way you can catch fresh, live crustaceans.

But I generally buy these as deepfreeze foods (my environment is very polluted with little natural biotope left ); they're good quality and when I feed, I thaw a bit in a glass jar with lukewarm water. Then I pour it through a small, finely meshed aquariumnet to rid of particles too small to be eaten anyway (and likely to pollute the tank major), and feed it to the fish.
Other stuff you can buy either frozen or even live is red and white mosquitolarvae, black mosquitolarvae (this can be cultured outside, but the adult bugs are the bloodsucking itchy kind... ) and others. I feed such things only rarely to certain fish, but not all (I have several tanks with species wich may not have this food).

I live in the suburbs London, UK so theres not a lot of healthy looking ponds etc near me. I think I'll stick to using brine shrimp artemia for my breeding of corys which Im going to start soon and join the deep freeze club. Much less hassle.

Thanks for the advice

Kotty