backyard brine shrimp?

[BCreefmaker]

ok this is just a kinda weird and funny story. a random set of event has turned up sometihng amazing in a rubbermaid tote im by back yard that i would have never expected. yes, brine shrimp! for a while i was taking my extra hair and bryopsis algae from cleaning my tank and my water from water changes and dumping it in large rubbermaid container in an experiment to test how rubbermaids held water. well i made the mistake of putting in the leftovers after feeding in the tote too... and everything was fine. until a few weeks down the road i was going to add more water change water and after i poured in a bit this most horrible smell.....i took a look and there was a little jello layer on to that had grown over the weeks, and once broken it gave off the most awful smell. so i took it out side and let it sit on my patio, and there it sat for 40 days and 40 nights in the hot/cold semi desert climate where i live in canada (yes theres semi desert in canda!). after the first day it really stopped smelling even know i was stirring it the first few days, then it was left. in the blazing sun all day and cold night, garbage blowing in from the wind and nearby trees, no water movement, no water changes, only top off = rain and sprinklers. and we dont get much rain in a semi desert. i took a peek in their today, massive amount of brine shrimpys! big suckers too! i was amazed. people couldent even tell me how to grow these guys big without human interaction and i did it by accident?! outside? i was just wondering could i feed them to my dragonnet? or are they best to leave out there?

[dragon_slayer]

would you really want to introduce that possibility of contamination to your system??

kc

[murfman]

Siphon them out with a turkey baster and then you can filter them through a paper coffee filter, rinse them in ro/di or clean salt water, then feed them.

[dragon_slayer]

Sorry but a rinse isn't going to do anything for the bacteria and algae they have ingested, thats what they've been surviving on in the cesspool of a container they were in.

kc

[BCreefmaker]

lol a cesspool is the perfect way to describe it.... but i didnt think that feeding them would be so bad... dont the brine shrimp process what they eat into protein or waste? or are you talking about what they just ate? and what bad bacteria could be on them? my tanks already got all the algea that lives in the cesspool. the worst thing that gets in their is pine needles, leaves and stuff like that....

[Helfrichs Chic]

Probally not brine.... more likely mysis. Either way I would not add them personally. Just mo

[BCreefmaker]

trust me thier brine shrimp. at least you guys didnt think they were mosquito larva :D

[dragon_slayer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10113010#post10113010 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BCreefmaker
...........or are you talking about what they just ate?

Exactly. toss em out, it's not worth the minimal food supply you get to take the chance of introducing some unknown pathogen to your system and killing even a single fish or worse yet wiping the whole system out.

if you want to hatch/raise/feed BS then start with a gallon glass jar for hatching with clean water (you can even use your old water from water changes), after the hatch feed 80% of the BBS to the tank.

put the other 20% in a 10g glass aquarium with an air supply to keep the water moving but not boiling (don't use an airstone, just let the air bubble) and keep them fed with a constant supply of food in the water column but not so much that the water fouls (a phyto drip works good and do particle water changes regularly/daily) and in several weeks you'll have adults to feed your tank that are of a quality you can safely feed to your system and they'll be fattened up and nutritional to boot.

FWIW, taking a 10g tank and filling it part way full of fresh water and sitting it outside a few days in the summer and allowing mosquito larva to start growing in it is an excellent food source for baby fish :) I've done it many times for my fresh water angels.

kc