How to grow brine shrimp at home

Brine shrimp can be grown successfully at home, especially for aquarium hobbyists. These microscopic animals, also known as sea monkeys, are not only amazing to watch but also a great source of food for fish. Brine shrimp farming is an easy and fun hobby for both novice and expert aquarium keepers.

Brine shrimp are aesthetically pleasing due to their versatility and simplicity in cultivation. They do best in a regulated setting, and you can have a steady supply to feed your fish if you have the proper arrangement. Plus, keeping an aquarium is made even more enjoyable by witnessing them hatch and grow.

A few basic supplies and a little perseverance will get you started. This guide will make it simple for you to grow brine shrimp at home by guiding you through every step of the process, from setting up the ideal habitat to making sure you’re providing the right care.

Steps	Details
Set up a tank	Use a small tank or container with saltwater (specific gravity of 1.020-1.025).
Add brine shrimp eggs	Sprinkle the eggs onto the surface of the water.
Provide aeration	Use an air pump to keep the water moving and oxygenated.
Maintain temperature	Keep the water at around 26-28°C (79-82°F).
Harvest the shrimp	After 24-48 hours, the shrimp will hatch, and you can collect them with a fine net.

Part one. Preparing a tank (incubator) for brine shrimp

Stage #1. Prepare the necessary materials

Since the eggs (cysts) will yield a live product, we will refer to the tank used to cultivate brine shrimp as an incubator for ease of understanding. What then is required for it:

• any container for water;
• a compressor with a sprayer (aerator);
• a table lamp;
• regular table or sea salt.

Stage #2. Prepare the tank

Any type of container—a regular glass jar, a plastic bottle, etc.—can be used with water. The tank should be shaped like a cylindrical or have rounded walls. Here, vertical water mixing happens more effectively than it would in a square or rectangular tank.

It is advised to put the future incubator on a stand of some sort. Any possible drop of water will be absorbed by it.

Provide a cover to prevent spills that may happen while the aerator is operating.

In our instance, a one-liter round glass vessel set on a cork stand is used. We use a plastic bucket lid with a hole in the middle for a lid. Through it will travel the aerator tube.

Step No. 3. Fill the tank with salt water

The composition of the water can vary significantly depending on the area and the condition of the water supply system. Artemia are extremely sensitive to metals in water and the methods employed in the housing and public services systems to purify it.

It is imperative to utilize clean water. Make sure to use water from underneath any household water filters you may have. If not, use tap water that has had a day or more to settle.

Using table salt or sea salt is acceptable. Our observations indicate that 32–37 g of salt per liter should be the ideal concentration of salt, which is equivalent to sea salt.

The hatching process will be delayed and there won’t be many nauplii if there is insufficient salt.

Crucial! Using regular salt is required. As an illustration, producers frequently include iodine and different flavorings. You cannot use this kind of modified salt.

Pour the salt mixture into the tank after mixing it with clean water to the necessary ratio (32–37 g per 1 l).

The ideal water temperature ranges from 20 to 25 °C. This is typically the exact temperature in a living area, so a heater is not usually necessary.

Part two. Growing Artemia

Stage No. 1. Purchasing eggs

Artemia eggs, also known as cysts, are available online or at pet stores. We used our own product in our example, which is available for purchase on the Yandex or Ozon marketplaces. Market

Where to buy?

We get dry Artemia eggs, or cysts, for our stores on the Yandex and Ozone marketplaces.Market. Out of stock for a while; we’re gathering fresh stock from the harvest in 2023.

You can assess our product’s quality and possible outcome (assuming all steps are followed correctly) by reading this article.

Step #2. Preparation and adding eggs

You can use dried Artemia eggs by adding them to salt water. 1-2 teaspoons, for instance, in one liter of water.

We advise you to heed our advice, as it has worked well, in order to raise the proportion of hatched crustaceans.

Tip #1: Take the necessary number of eggs and store them in the freezer for a few days before adding them to water. In our instance, a week of freezing resulted in an abundant harvest.

We use Artemia eggs from the Altai Territory’s Siberian lakes in our products. They are also more nutrient-dense and more resilient than their tropical counterparts, which are also the ones that Flamingos eat. When eggs sit in frozen reservoirs until spring, freezing is a normal part of the process.

The process of nauplii birth is initiated by freezing and thawing.

Eggs quickly thaw to room temperature after being removed from the freezer. You can wait thirty minutes, just to be sure.

Tip #2: Raising the water’s temperature to 30-35°C before adding eggs is advised as this is one of the elements that triggers the hatching process.

Although the precise impact of the elevated water temperature on hatching remains unknown, our experiments revealed a higher yield.

In the future, there’s no reason to keep the temperature this high. Allow it to cool to the previously mentioned room temperature of 20 to 25°C.

Stage #3. Aeration and lighting

The defrosted eggs will begin to hatch when they are submerged in warm salt water. Constant aeration of the water is required to maintain the life of the crustaceans and to stimulate it.

To guarantee constant mixing and oxygen saturation of the water, the sprayer should be positioned at the bottom of the incubator and produce a fairly strong stream of bubbles. It is best if there are more eggs circulating in the water.

As mentioned above, to prevent splashes of salt, it is best to cover the tank with a lid.

Aeration is not enough; continuous lighting is also required. Position the incubator beneath a standard table lamp. There are crayfish in the dark!

Stage No. 4. Appearance of crustaceans

After adding eggs to the water, nauplii should start to appear one day later if all the conditions are met (temperature, aeration, light, and salt content).

In our situation, the water turned orange after a process that took 18 to 26 hours.

The process of obtaining nauplii is thus finished.

The amount of oxygen in the water determines the color of the crustaceans. An increased concentration of hemoglobin can cause them to turn from red to orange.

Crucial! The aeration needs to be reduced when the crustaceans emerge. If not, the nauplii have to work very hard to stop the water from moving. As a result, their nutritional supply will be depleted quickly.

There will be a lot of shells and unhatched eggs in the water in addition to the crustaceans. While the other will rest in a layer at the bottom, the first will float on the surface. This is regarded as typical.

Brine shrimp are an easy and satisfying process to grow at home, and they give your aquarium fish a healthy source of nutrition. You can easily hatch and raise these tiny crustaceans with a few basic supplies and some attention to water quality, which will guarantee a consistent supply of live food that will improve the color and health of your fish.

Part three. How to catch (collect) brine shrimp

Brine shrimp are small and there are a lot of empty eggs and shells in the water, so catching them is not an easy task.

The idea of a siphon and filter is the most straightforward and approachable technique. That’s the name we gave it. It will work for everyone.

Step No. 1. Preparing the tools

In order to catch crabs, we’ll need:

• a medical syringe;
• a piece of tube or hose;
• a piece of fabric.

One buys the syringe from a typical pharmacy. A minimum 10 ml syringe volume is advised.

Everything can be used as a tube as long as it fits over the syringe’s tip. We used a standard thin hose that we got from a hardware store in our situation. In aeration systems, a similar hose—a flexible tube—is utilized to link a compressor and sprayer.

Any material will do, though cotton is preferred because synthetic materials don’t always absorb water well. It’s also advised to use white fabric. It will be easy to see the crustaceans on it.

Stage No. 2. Collecting Artemia

You must stop the aeration and wait for the water to calm down before you begin collecting Artemia.

Additionally, the table lamp’s light needs to be turned off. The crustaceans will be evenly distributed throughout the entire volume of water if the light is left on, making it more difficult to catch them.

You can use a flashlight to attract Artemia nauplii and make the collection process easier. Point a phone or flashlight against the incubator’s wall. The crustaceans will eventually start to swim in the direction of the light.

Artemia’s natural behavior is to swim in the direction of light. Since they consume phytoplankton, or algae, they believe that food can be found anywhere there is light.

Using a syringe, draw water from the cluster of Artemia by submerging the tube’s tip.

The cloth will still have a layer of live crustaceans on it after you run water from the syringe through it.

Step #3. Feed the fish

It’s easy to dip and rinse the cloth in the aquarium after adding brine shrimp to it. Scraping the crustaceans off the cloth is not necessary.

Rinsing the crustaceans in fresh water separately is also not necessary. Just as sea fish does not taste salty, neither do the crustaceans themselves contain salt. As a result, they won’t change the aquarium’s water’s composition.

Our findings indicate that live nauplii can endure in freshwater for approximately half an hour while swimming actively. The fish devour them fast during this time.

Growing brine shrimp in your aquarium yourself is a fulfilling hobby that provides a healthy, fresh food source. It’s an easy process that just needs a little perseverance and a few basic supplies.

Brine shrimp can be successfully hatched and raised provided the ideal conditions are maintained, which include the right water temperature and salinity. Keeping your shrimp clean and healthy requires routine feeding and cleaning.

You can easily provide your fish with a consistent source of live food with these easy steps, which will improve their diet and general health.

Video on the topic

Breeding brine shrimp at home. Removing nauplii from cysts.

Artemia rearing to adult

BREEDING ARTEMIA!!!

MAKING LIVE FISH FOOD in 24 hours AT HOME.ARTEMIA.LIVE IS AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE.Artemia