Decapsulating Brine Shrimp Eggs

[Ben]

To decapsulate brine shrimp cysts is very easy and can be done at home.


This is what you will need.

Air pump with air hose
Plastic 2 litre bottle
500ml freshwater
350ml liquid bleach
Fine brine shrimp net
1 teaspoon brine shrimp cysts
1 tablespoon vinegar

When buying the brine shrimp cysts spend the extra dollars and buy higher hatch rate cysts like %90+ guaranteed hatch rate.

Cut the bottom of the plastic bottle and add the hose placed at the bottom so all of brine shrimp cysts will be suspended in water.

Add the 500ml of water with the cysts and hydrate them for 1 hour.

After one hour add the 350 ml of bleach, keep the water bubbling and the cysts moving in the liquid. At this stage you will need to monitor how long it will take, from 5-12 minutes.

The cysts will turn from brown to grey then finally to orange. Once the cysts are orange in color tip the lot into a fine brine shrimp net and rinse under running water for one minute. Rinse the plastic bottle, fill with 200ml of freshwater and add the tablespoon of vinegar and tip the eggs back into the vinegar solution, stir for 30 seconds then tip once again into the net and rinse with freshwater. By doing this the vinegar will neutralize the chlorine.

Once this is done the cysts are ready to hatch as per normal instruction or can be fed straight to the baby fish or discus.

very easy to do!
Here are some pictures of how easy!

Cheers
Ben

[Ben]

Some more pictures of the process.

[Merrilyn]

Ben that's great. As you said, you can feed the brine shrimp eggs to tiny fry, just as they are, or use them for hatching. To keep the eggs fresh, soak them in a very strong brine solution, and keep in the fridge till needed.

It's best to only decap a small quantity at a time, but they are sooo much easier to hatch, and use.

[Crocky]

Hey Ben

Can you re-use the bleach.
Say soak the eggs in water while in the net then place in 500/350 mix so on.

Brad

[Ben]

Hi Brad,

It’s not the best idea to re-use the bleach as when it is exposed to air, bleach or (sodium hypochlorite) starts to break down.

Bleach is relatively cheap anyhow.

The decapsulated cysts can be kept in a heavy salt water solution until either fed to the baby fish or hatched in a normal salt water environment when hatching brine shrimp

To make the salt water solution boil 500ml of water with 500 grams of salt water for 10 minutes then let this cool to room temperature. Mix the decapsulated eggs with this solution, cover well and store in the fridge until needed.

Cheers
Ben

[k9outfit]

Just decapsulated my 1st batch of brine shrimp without a hitch. :D Only question I have is pertaining to the salt solution for storage. I used pickling salt (Koscher salt?), boiled it in water, but possibly only 1/2 (if that) actually disolved. Would the quantity of salt vs. water possibly be a misprint, or should I have used a different type of salt? Or, should I have add the undisolved salt to the solution to keep the water supersaturated?

[wickedglass]

that happens, k9
when there's enough salt in solution for the water not to be able to take more salt, it should be enough to take the water for BS preserving. I usually leave whatever salt is undissolved in the water container and just pour off the liquid into the BS pickling jar.

[Ben]

That’s correct, I prefer to have an extra strong solution of brine to keep the decapsulated brine shrimp eggs in.

And there will be some undissolved salt.

Ben

[jim from sydney]

Ben...... :lol:

......how are you Pal

am about to try your suggestions.......wish me luck :blob

[Ben]

If you need anymore help let me know Jim.

cheers
Ben

[samir]

thanks for the info Ben. :)

[jim from sydney]

If you need anymore help let me know Jim.

cheers
Ben

Thanks Pal, thats very kind of you....cheers

[paulibius]

Feeding the decapsulated cysts to baby fish without hatching.
Is this good for the babies or is it better to hatch them.

Cheers Paul.

[Ben]

It is better to hatch them Paul as there is a higher nutritional value in newly hatched brine shrimp than unhatched decapsulated cysts.

In saying that though, you can fed the unhatched BS to baby fish.

Ben

[Three little fish]

Hey Ben,

Is the 350ml of bleach correct? Seems like an awful lot. When I tipped it into my bubbling water/eggs it frothed up and over flowed. I got the desired result but am just wondering if it wasn't a bit to much?