tell us how he jumped into monsoon drains as a kid, made elaborate traps to catch birds and also his
fascination with "sea monkeys."
I bet if you got to a Toys 'R' Us or any major toyshop,you might come across a brightly packaged
item with a fancy container labelled "sea monkeys" which in reality are actually brine shrimp or
artemia. Fish breeders hatch brine shrimp to serve as food for their fish and their fry as they are
really tiny,suitable for fish fry and are highly nutritious.
Brine shrimp can only survive in salt water or sea water. Earlier on I purchased a bottle so artemia
eggs from a petshop for RM19.90 a bottle,pricey for such a small bottle but it has zillions of tiny
eggs in them.
All you need to hatch your eggs is a container,brine shrimp eggs and salt water (if it tastes salty like
seawater then it's good enough). Depending on how much brine shrimp you want to produce,sprinkle
the eggs gently with a spoon unto the water. The eggs will float on the surface but a lot of them will
sink too.
Many people think it's necessary to add a filter for it to hatch but it really isn't necessary. In fact I
don't recommend one as it will just stir up the eggs.Now all you have to do is wait for a day or so and
the eggs ought to hatch. At first there will be no change to the eggs but after awhile you can see the
egg with a sack that looks like a teardrop hanging below it. Oh by the way the eggs are called cysts.
The eggs with these sacs are the ones that will hatch in a few hours. Try not to shake the container.
After a day you will see these really tiny things swimming around in a jerky sort of ballet. They can
grow to around a centimeter long and when they do, they are really a joy to look at. Like translucent
angels floating and dancing in the water.
Newly hatched artemia/ brine shrimp
Adult brine shrimp
If you want to keep your artemia instead of using them as fish food for your fishes, you have to feed
them. Some sites I've read recommend some really weird stuff like feeding them milk powder, egg
yolk and things like that. I have a much simpler solution. In their natural environment, the brine
shrimp feed on planktonic algae, so the nearest thing I could think of is crushing green leaves of
edible plants with a little salt water and feeding them the juice and a little of the mashed up pulp.Not
too little but not too much as to cloud up the water. These has worked for me in the past and my
brine shrimp grew up to have offspring of their own. Just make sure the water is clean and if you
want to feed the brine shrimp to the fishes,it's best to feed it to the fish as soon as they are hatched or
soon after.They are most nutritious and easy to eat before they have developed their hard outer layers.
Sounds easy eh/It is :) Here's a video of what they look like after they hatch, just to give you an idea
of how minute they are
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