Product Review - Brine Shrimp Hatcheries

[McTurtle]

I'm no expert, but I thought I'd share my opinion of the hatcheries I've tried so far.

I had many schemes to build my own brine shrimp hatchery, but I just kept putting it off. The designs are not that complicated and if you're a handy person go for it. I gave up and bought mine, which is where this review is leading.

Hatchery #1 - San Francisco Bay Black box.

I drilled a small hole into the lid and ran an airstone inside.

Pros - The nice thing about this hatchery is that you don't have to rinse out the shrimp. There is a clear pill bottle shaped container that fits onto the box with a small hole in the lid. The clear bottle is filled with water and inverted onto the hatchery. The hatched shrimp swim up into the clear bottle (towards the light).

Cons - 1) The container is square, so the aeration doesn't move all of the eggs, as they get trapped in the corners.

2) The airstone degrades in the salt water, needs to be replaced every so often.

3) Tends to leak as the container has to be full to the brim to prevent an air bubble between the hatchery and the collection bottle

Hatchery #2 - Angelfins brine Shrimp Hatchery Medium - I'm not sure if they make it or if it has a brand name

Stand with inverted bottle on top, valve at the bottom, aeration straw with valve & lid

Pros - 1) Very efficient! The aeration is great and my hatch rate was awesome.

2) Easy to clean, no mess and no escaping salt water

Cons - not really a con, because this is common to most hatcheries of this type, but the collection is a little more involved. The instructions are for 1 day hatching and then cleaning the hatchery and starting again. I find that if I collect the hatched shrimp into a small container I also have a bunch of unhatched eggs, I use a turkey baster to collect the shrimp and then dump the eggs back into the hatchery. On the second day I have another haul of new shrimp, though less than day 1. Then I clean out the hatchery. Also, the shrimp have to be poured into a brine shrimp net (or a coffee filter) and rinsed to remove the salt.

This is a new hatchery for me, but I really love it so far. Considering how expensive Brine shrimp eggs can be, I'd much rather have a little more fuss to collect them than a lower hatch rate.