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The  Northern Ohio Killifish Association

Club Magazine Jan-08  Edition

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If you hatch *BBS only on occasion, so be it. But if brine shrimp hatching is a 24hrs, 7 days a week, 365 days a year task and/or brine shrimp is the main course for dozens of fry, and dozens of tanks, then hatching & feeding brine shrimp can be a chore. And at that frequency, those little mundane inconveniences become big time wasters, so even saving 2-5 minutes a day over the course of the year adds up. Worse, if daily cleaning or rinsing is difficult, then that filthy hatchery can contribute to a decreased hatch rate, and just a 10-20% decrease starts adding up to money lost (if your hatch rate drops 10%, that means you are actually paying more for eggs). There are no breakthroughs here, what follows is just one variation out of hundreds of shrimp hatchery ideas. All the mundane detail in this pictorial is really just "tweaking" on a tried & true design.

Step 2 Find something with a opening slightly smaller than the diameter of that 2Liter soda bottle (flower pot, plastic Jar, et) this will be your stand (I found a 1/2 gal plastic jar at a "Big Box" store that worked perfectly.

If you only raise fry occasionally or hatching BBS is a intermittent thing, then perhaps spending under 1 buck for a few ounces of "Table Salt" makes sense. But for those of us who raise hundreds of fish per year or have several dozen tanks to feed, then 10-20 trips a year to buy one can of table salt, isn't practical. A workaround is to use "Rock salt" (the type for melting Ice) because it is REALLY cheap, but soon you discover that "driveway salt" leaves behind  rocks and gooey white impurities (which may be harmless, but you don't want in your tank anyway). So why bother with all of that? Just break down and get a 40LB BAG of "Water softener salt for under $5. At the recommended 1TBS of salt per liter of water, this 40lb bag of salt will last a LOT longer than a box of "Kosher" salt, and is almost as cheap as that "rock salt" for your driveway. In any event,  Water softener salt is a heckuva lot higher in purity than ordinary pavement use "Rock Salt. Your containers will be cleaner and the shrimp will appreciate it for their short lives ☺

Pt II. to Re-Use or not Re-use old BBS hatch water. Cost: the cost of a TBS of salt divided into the cost of a 40lb bag of salt can't justify the bother to recycle hatch water. Convenience however might be. I've done both; re-used the water and discarded it, it all depended on whether it was easier to dump & rinse, or filter out the dead eggs and re-use. Be advised, your hatch rate WILL decrease eventually as the hatch water gets nasty.

Step 3 

Whatever you use as your "stand", cut it down to a practical height such that your bottle won't tip over. You also want the final height of your base to suspended the soda bottle opening about 2" above your table surface (see picture below)  ...Drill two holes directly opposite on each side near the bottom. The holes should be large enough for std. airline to go through

This picture pretty much explains the concept. You can't tell from this perspective, but the opening of the soda bottle hangs about 2" from the bottom. You may opt to glue the bottle to the base.

Step 4. Next you'll want to get the hardware shown on the right. (all of it is easily found)

(parts numbered clockwise from the top)   

1. Check-valve: whether your pump is above the waterline of the setup or not, get a good check-valve (to prevent BBS from back flushing up your airline while settling out), Also, a cheap or stuck check-valve creates backpressure on your pump, and it will be  more expensive to replace a pump diaphragm than the cost savings for a cheap check-valve.

2. Air Valve: you'll need 2ea, a cheap one as shown above is fine for the dispensing end of the airline tube, BUT remember a cheap air-valve will leak or wear eventually when used daily (important if you need a positive shut-off). This matters a lot more on the "Air-in" side than the "shrimp dispensing" side (because a leaky valve will allow the shrimp to "backwash towards the pump, leaving behind dead shrimp in your airline)...instead get a GOOD air-valve as shown in the picture below

3. Airline Tee: self explanatory (see picture below-right)

4. In-line connector: again there are 2 types: the cheap green type (shown in picture below) and the tapered black type (as shown above). Your call, but again, the cheap green type fails a lot sooner, your workaround is to keep cutting the airline to make it snug.  Also notice there is a short 2" piece of airline between the valve and the in-line disconnect: that is so you can remove your bottle for cleaning AND because it is difficult to disconnect daily from the barbed end of a good shut off valve. (it is also easier to replace 2" of airline than to keep cutting the longer piece for a snug fit), Oh and by the way, now would be a good time to find a drill bit or punch that is slightly smaller than the diameter of your airline connector.

5. Airline: self explanatory, but you'll notice the black line. I use black line <optional> anytime it is near a bright light source. Seems somehow algae always eventually finds its way in there, perhaps the air is moist?

6. Light: you'll need a light source. Unless you live in a warm climate, you'll want to use a incandescent light with a clamp  & reflector, (I found a "clamp" light or reptile heat lamp for about $5). For lighting, generally a 25W, 40W or 60W bulb is plenty, but that depends on your ambient air temperature, and the distance you must locate your lighting from the hatchery. Note: you'll want to locate the light such that it will both illuminate and warm the water to about 80-85F, BUT also be located far enough away as to NOT MELT THE PLASTIC. A little cooler than 80F is OK, but the eggs will take longer than 24hrs to hatch

If you own a small diaphragm pump, your best bet is to locate it above the BBS hatchery regardless. To shut off the air, you might want to simply disconnect the line, that way you are not wearing out your diaphragm daily by shutting off air flow while the pump is running (you still need a positive shut off valve) Alternatively if the air source is part of a gang valve, then a positive shut off will simply make air bypass to the other outlets...Again, get a good "positive shut off" valve like the black ones shown. Those cheap green plastic ones from a "air-kit" wear out too fast and will allow shrimp to flow into the airline creating a mess to clean.

Step 5 If you haven't done so already, drill or punch a hole into the bottle cap that is slightly smaller than the diameter of your airline connector. Place a drop of super glue on the  connector and push it snuggly into the hole.  If done right it will seal the 1st time.

Configure the cap, airline and tee as shown in the picture (above right). The diagram to the immediate right should be self explanatory. You may want to make sure the airline on the  dispensing end is long enough to reach to the floor, shelf or wherever your collection container will be.

After final assembly, turn on the air. Next get a measuring cup (or any container known to hold exactly one liter). Fill the hatchery with one liter of water, then using a permanent marker, draw a water line at the "1-liter" mark (this is your "fill line"). Now find a tablespoon, fill with salt: for coarse salt like rock salt, et. "level" the contents; for fine grained salt, use a little less than 1 tablespoon. Using the same principle as before; locate a cup, cap, or container and mark a  "Salt fill line" that you can keep by your hatchery and know that if filled, the contents will equal 1 tablespoon. Same principle applies for the eggs, except this time you want 1/4 TBS (I got 3 sacrificial containers by my hatchery that I simply dunk into the "ingredients" and have a pre-measured amount for mixing in my hatchery).