Live food for YOUR reef?

[Anonymous]

Hi, Guys! I've been culturing live food for my reef and fish for a few years now, and I am just curious if any others here do?

And, if you don't, I have a really easy way to have live food without too much work. Any interest before I do any major typing?

If you are curious, it relates to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Salt_Lake

 

[rayjay]

I raise brine shrimp to adult for myself and for resale.
My web site describes how I was doing it before I went into retailing them.
RAISING BRINE SHRIMP TO ADULT

 

[Anonymous]

I'm not that industrius.

 

[Anonymous]

It is really easy.....You should see where they live naturally.

 

[Len]

My LFS gets live brine every few days, and I'm lazy So I get mine through them. It does get pricey though.

 

[Anonymous]

It is really easy.....You should see where they live naturally.

I also travel lots for work so it is not something I can maintain. Keeping the reef is hard enough at times.

 

[Anonymous]

If you take just a few, and leave them in a mason jar, they will make live babies! You can add a few drops of phytofeast once in a while....

 

[Anonymous]

I was under the impression that brine shrimp really didn't have much in thew way of nutritional value unless they were freshly hatched with egg sacks still attached.

 

[rayjay]

That is one of the biggest misconceptions there are and it has been perpetuated over many years.
I think it has to do with the packaging of frozen brine shrimp where they list the protein content as a very low figure. The figure is actually based on the protein level of the whole contents, moisture, and other packaging fluids (preservatives, can you spell phosphates?) Because people see high protein levels on other food packaging, they automatically think the brine have no value.
However, if you take the dry weight percentages of protein of all foods, and compare them, the brine are quite suitable, although mysis are a little better.
GSL cysts raised to adult will run close to 60% protein while flake foods, including standard spirulina flake run around 45%.
For the most complete source of info on brine shrimp (artemia) see the article on the United Nations site "Manual on the Production and Use of Food for the Aquaculture Industry at:
CLICK HERE AND SCROLL DOWN TO SECTION 4.0, ARTEMIA
For nutritional properties of ongrown artemia scroll down to section 4.4.1
In actual fact the brine shrimp progress through the nauplii to adult with the nauplii being high in fatty acids, and low in protein, and the juveniles and adults being high in protein and low in fatty acids. By gut loading adults you get the best of both situations.

 

[Anonymous]

I was under the impression that brine shrimp really didn't have much in thew way of nutritional value unless they were freshly hatched with egg sacks still attached.

The short answer is that frozen mysids are more convenient, cheaper, and end up being more nutritious than buying live adult brine and enriching it.

 

[rayjay]

Some benifits of live adult brine are that they can be gut loaded with whatever you need to get to your target fish, be it a vitamin, or specific nutrient, or sometimes a medication and, they work great for giving your fish exercise at a level that they certainly don't get going after frozen or flake.
Something like comparing the couch potato to the sport minded person.
Live brine shrimp, like any other food, should only be a part of a suitable feeding regeme for the fish that are being fed.

 

[Snowboarda42]

Brine Shrimp Direct Typical Cyst Analysis:
Great Salt Lake Strain
Biometrics (Grade A):
Diameter of hydrated cysts = 240 microns (average)
Length of Instar I nauplii = 450 microns(average)
Proximate Analysis (Dry Weight Basis):
Protein: 55%
Fat: 14.0% minimum
Ash: 8.1% minimum
Moisture: 7.0% maximum
Essential Fatty Acids:
18:2n-6: 0.3 mg/g (dry weight)
18:3n-3: 19.0
20:5n-3: 3.5
22:6n-3: 0.1
omega-3 Fatty acids 5.0 (HUFA — highly unsaturated fatty acids)
Microbiological Analysis:
Marine Bacteria: (CFU/g) 10,000 maximum
Yeasts/molds: (CFU/g) 1,000 maximum
Coliforms: (MPN/g) 10 maximum
E. coli: (1g) negative
Salmonella: negative
V. cholerae: negative
Heavy Metals (microgram/g):
Cadmium: 0.5 maximum
Copper: 6.0 maximum
Lead: 0.8 maximum
Mercury: 0.3 maximum
Pesticides (microgram/g):
Chlorinated Hydrocarbons: 0.03 maximum
Organo-Phosphates: 0.01 maximum
PCB — total: 0.01 maximum
Trichloroethylene: 0.01 maximum
Cyst Storage:
Brine shrimp cysts are best stored at low-humidity, low-temperature conditions to maintain their hatching quality. For long-term storage, store at temperatures below 50°F (10°C), but above freezing.

 

[Anonymous]

Brine Shrimp Direct Typical Cyst Analysis:

Cyst being the key word there. Cysts and adults have different nutritional values. Compairing egg to adult just doesn't work.

 

[rayjay]

For those who were not interested enough to read the nutrition profile from the article by the Artemia Reference Center at the University of Ghent, THIS is the protein/lipid comparison from that link I previously gave.
I tried to copy and paste but it kept copying all out of sequence so I had to just link direct to the nutrition page.
NUTRITIONAL PROPERTIES OF ONGROWN ARTEMIA
It shows the protein and lipid levels of GSL ongrown artemia for nauplii, wild caught adults, and cultured juveniles and adults for which the cultured juveniles and adults have protein levels of 49.7 - 62.5%
These results can be improved upon by gut loading.

 

[Anonymous]

I just think it is cool to be able to stick a turkey baster in a bucket and have live food for my reef. The tiny ones feed the corals, and the fish seem to like to chase down the adults. I use the old water from the tank during a water change to keep the bucket going....

 

[rayjay]

I hope you rinse the brine shrimp (artemia) in fresh water before you add them to your tank(s).
This recommendation is from BSD, Artemia Reference Centre, and all aquaculture sites I've visited.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't. But, I am adding a turkey baster full to 250 gallons.....

Do you know the guys at BSD? They are kinda my neighbors.

 

[rayjay]

First of all, consider that just a "wet" net used in a container/tank with a bad bacteria and then used, without "proper" rinsing, in another tank, can cause the second tank to be affected by that bad bacteria which will multiply in it's new surroundings. I certainly don't want to add that baster of artemia water to my tanks, no matter what size they are.
It's not like you are adding a little phosphate or nitrate or something else elemental that dilution makes less harmful, you are potentially adding a bacteria the can grow and spread. While it doesn't happen regularly, it happens often enough that commercial users of artemia can't afford to let it happen even once, and hobbyists concerned about the investment they have usually would rinse to lessen the chances of problems.

I don't "know" the guys at BSD, but I order quite regularly (usually Tim) as I use their cysts for my grow operation, and I augment the greenwater food that I feed them, with cyropaste that I also buy at BSD. (nano, Tahitian Blend, and pavlova)

 

[Anonymous]

Well, thanks for your opinion. I'll probably continue to take a chance, 'cause I've been doing it for years. But, my fish do seem to have strong immune systems. I am on our third generation of seahorse fry, I have been propagating quite a few corals in this system and I have fish that are over a decade old. I'll probably just keep doing what I'm doing...

But, thanks again!

(Did you think the last batch o' pavlona had a bit of stench?)

 

[Anonymous]

What kind of stench? Hydrogen Sulfide like, or DMS like?