question about bbs

corywink · Post by **corywink** » 02 Mar 2007, 16:42

When the baby brine shrimps hatch, do they swim all over the tank? If so how do you feed them to cory fry since they stay at the bottom of the tank?

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 02 Mar 2007, 17:21

One way that works well is feed the bbs with your tank light out and the place a small light source beaming in through the side at the bottom and the bbs will congregate at the light source.

Another approach is to use microworms as your Cory fry first food. They naturally sink to the bottom, and wiggle where the Corys naturally feed and are not attracted to lights so you leave the tank light on.
After the Corys have been free swimming for 7-10 days they become better at hunting down bbs where ever they are.

Be very careful to not over feed. Better to add very few more frequently than a lot twice a day. This is to prevent uneaten food from polluting the water.

What Corydoras species are you raising?

Coryologist · Post by **Coryologist** » 03 Mar 2007, 02:45

Greetings. There is no reason to hatch BBS for your Cory fry. Use a non-hatching decapsulated egg, instead. They are higher in nutritional value than a newly hatched BBS as many of the lipids that are used in the hatching process and early development of the nauplii are maintained in the unhatched egg. Less cost, no hatching, no clean-up and better nutrition. Hatching BBS is, oh, so 90's!

Haven't hatched an egg in over 2 years and my fish have not complained.

Be sure to allow them to rehydrate for about 10 minutes before feeding. Use very, very sparingly and be sure to provide a varied diet. Hope this helps. - Frank

P.S. If you require any pertinent research, LMK.

corywink · Post by **corywink** » 03 Mar 2007, 03:46

Right now I'm raising some sterbai fry, and once I've freed up a tank I'll try to spawn my pandas.

I've been trying to feed decapsulated brine shrimp eggs, but the fry treat them like sand, in it goes and out it goes through their gill plate. That's why I want to give the hatchable ones a try. Do yours do this?

Maybe I'll try rehydrating them longer. The instructions said to soak them for only 5 mins.

corywink · Post by **corywink** » 06 Mar 2007, 11:43

Can someone tell me, after soaking the decapsulated brine shrimp eggs, are they supposed to soften up? Mine stay hard no matter how long I soaked them.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 06 Mar 2007, 16:33

Did you soak your decapsulated brine shrimp cysts in fresh water? That will soften them up whereas a brine solution tends to leave them intact.

I have tried the dbbsc myself and my Cory fry did not always seem to recognize them as food. They began accepting them better when I fed them cysts with a livefood like microworms. After that, they soon accepted the cysts alone. I did my experiments with Corydoras sterbai as well.

corywink · Post by **corywink** » 09 Mar 2007, 07:49

apistomaster wrote:Did you soak your decapsulated brine shrimp cysts in fresh water? That will soften them up whereas a brine solution tends to leave them intact.

I have tried the dbbsc myself and my Cory fry did not always seem to recognize them as food. They began accepting them better when I fed them cysts with a livefood like microworms. After that, they soon accepted the cysts alone. I did my experiments with Corydoras sterbai as well.

I just used the tank water to soak them. I've been feeding them along wiht microworms, unintended though. I always try to get them eating the decaped eggs, but they treat them like sand so I end up adding microworms.