BBS separating help.

[Dogshowgrl]

I am trying to use DIY brine hatchers. I understand dead eggs sink, artemia in the middle, egg shells on top. But I can't seem to get the middle layer clean enough for my liking.

Current process: eggs tumble for 24-36 hrs. Turn off air unplug and take to where I drain it, let sit for 30-45 minutes. Back feed air line to drain. Waste until bottom dead eggs are gone, place a container to catch middle BBS. About half way through I switch containers to ensure I don't get the top shells. I may switch containers 4-6 times. These BBS are then added together (the cleanest ones) put in a sieve and rinsed several times, enriched and put with airline 4-8 hours. I then let it sit again, cleaning the shells off the top.

I am still trying to figure out the decapsulation process. I have yet to get a yeild more than 10%. I just burn them up no matter a quickly I react to the color change. I have been using the University of Florida instructions on decapsulation, mostly in smaller proportions. If you have a better way please feel free to open my eyes. I would prefer a decapsulation meathod, cleaner and safer from hydroids. One day it will click but until then I need to feed babies.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160823/d4a4c3aa210fdfcc029f3848577f1081.jpg

I use hobbyist hatchers for artemia, but I don't have the space or funding to do those exclusively for full grow out. And it's really not practical. It works well for the first ten days then I move on to enriched and that's when the DIY hatchers come in. For bulk.

Thanks for your kind help and experience!

[rayjay]

First of all, I like the simple 2 litre pop bottles for hatchers/enrichers.
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/Hatcher.html
To harvest brine nauplii I first remove the air and let sit for five minutes with the 3/16 rigid tube connected to 3/16 airline tube sitting in the hatcher (so I don't have to stir up the top empty cysts when placing the tube in after settlement) resting on the bottom. After settlement, I then siphon off ALL that is on the bottom and then continue siphoning until the floating empty cysts are starting to get siphoned up at which point I stop the siphon immediately and let the empty cysts in the line run back into the hatcher. Next, I rinse the hatcher and siphon tube and replace the siphoned fluid with nauplii and unhatched cysts, back into the hatcher and again let sit for five minutes. (too long and you might loose the nauplii that can smother themselves when they congregate in mass at the bottom unless you use a light to draw them elsewhere)
Now, after settlement, I siphon off starting near the top and continue until the unhatched cysts start to get siphoned up and again immediately stop the flow and let the unhatched cysts flow back into the hatcher. Now just pour the fluid through the mesh and capture all the nauplii. You will never get a perfect separation so there will still be some garbage in the harvest.
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/brineshrimp.html
I actually have quit doing the decap and instead just sterilize the cysts before hatching.
When decapping, I found a lot of garbage would remain in suspension so that it was impossible to get a clean harvest, but when I just sterilize the cysts, there is FAR less crap in suspension and I get a cleaner harvest.
Just the way I've evolved over the last 20+ yrs of raising artemia.

[BlueCat1949]

I placed a small flashlight about 1/2 way up the container and in a darkened room the bbs would be attracted to the light and visibly moving. I then siphoned out the moving bbs with a rigid tube attached to an airline tube. I got almost no other eggs or shells in this way so it was clean harvest. When done pinch off the tube to stop the siphon and remove.

[DanU]

Artemia is a PIA!!!!! Necessary, but a PIA.

We sterilize the hatch at the end by adding peroxide at 8,000 mg/L for 5 minutes. The peroxide will make all the unhatched cysts, debris and shells go to the top in the foam layer. Viable nauplii will dive to the bottom. Drain the bottom two thirds and rinse and you will have a pretty clean culture with minimal extra garbage. You will also have sterilized the hatch.

Dan

[Dogshowgrl]

Artemia is a PIA!!!!! Necessary, but a PIA.

We sterilize the hatch at the end by adding peroxide at 8,000 mg/L for 5 minutes. The peroxide will make all the unhatched cysts, debris and shells go to the top in the foam layer. Viable nauplii will dive to the bottom. Drain the bottom two thirds and rinse and you will have a pretty clean culture with minimal extra garbage. You will also have sterilized the hatch.

Dan
Thank you!

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