Do It Your Self Baby Brine Shrimp Hatchery

1.  Take a 2 quart plastic soda bottle and clean it really good with hot hot hot water. 2.  Take the plastic bottle cap and drill a hole the same diameter as a 1/8 inch piece of rigid      clear tubing. 3.   Next cut a small slit in the top of the Bottle cap between the hole you made for the       tubing and the top edge of the bottle cap. 4.   Insert the rigid tubing (long enough to reach the bottom of the bottle)through the hole in       the center of the plastic bottle cap so that it reaches the bottom of the soda bottle. 5.   Slip one end of a piece of green airline tubing over the top end of the rigid tubing and       slip the other end onto the air pump.

Above I have 3 hatcheries going. I use 1 each day as it takes 48 hours for the eggs to hatch. I also tried a 2 Quart Snapple bottle but I found that the BBS get hung up in the ridges and its tough to get them out.

I used a white piece of stiff tubing in this one.

After the BBS hatch, I strain them through a hankerchief. I use a 1/2 gallon fish bowl for collecting the brine water then added an elastic band over the top lip to hold the hankerchief in place. Picture on the right shows the BBS being strained .

Some things that I have observed are that the brine water needs to be changed just the same as your fish tank needs water changes. I got into the habit of changing 10 to 20% of the Brine water daily. I also was careful to make sure no cysts developed by thoroughly cleaning all pieces of the hatchery before loading up with BBS eggs each day.

To make up the brine water, I would treat 1 gallon of tap water with NovAqua then add 8 TableSpoons full of Doc Fishwells Aquarium Salt and let it age over night before using it  to hatch BBS.