Ziss brine shrimp hatchery

[Coof]

So I have the brine shrimp direct hatchery and I like it but I wanted to try the Ziss after watching Corey’s video. I tried my first batch and the eggs all sunk to the bottom. That makes it super hard to harvest. I’ve setup my second attempt but thus far it looks like the same thing is happening. I am using the little glass viles of eggs from my LFS (San Francisco bay I believe). Will I have better luck with the aquarium coop eggs? Am I doing something wrong? Also how do you easily separate the bbs from the eggs when harvesting? I’m sure there’s an easier way and I’m missing something. Thanks I’m advance. 

[Griznatch]

Do you have the airstone in there. Also, when ready to harvest a small light at bottom will attract the swimmers to it. The  unhatched and shells should float (after the airstone is turned off). You could also have some dud eggs, even so some of them should have hatched...

[Tihshho]

Might just be the quality of the eggs or their age. I know I've had that happen on SFB eggs in the past. 

[Coof]

yes I have a ziss air stone and light. Maybe it is the eggs. How do you easily separate the bbs from the eggs when harvesting?

[Struggle]

You can try stacking sieves but I’ve never had luck. The easiest way for me to separate most of the shells is to buy a hi quality egg. Usually if properly taken care of the majority will separate after hatching and I dispose of the last little bit. Make sure to let sit for about 5 minutes with no air and a light at the bottom. If you end up with a lot of unhatched eggs in the bottom of your collection container you can either pour off /siphon the hatched bbs very carefully into another container leaving the heavier unhatched bbs eggs in the original collection container or feed and pour off the remaining unhatched eggs afterwards.

[Guppysnail]

I have no issues with coop eggs unhatched and shells float to the top. I shine a flashlight at the ziss opening at the bottom with a towel covering most of the hatchery. They are drawn to the light. All live go directly to bottom.  I did insert a 4 inch length of coop airline in the spout to make it easier to pour out. I strain through one sieve and seldom ever see un unhatched with the live. 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Guppysnail

[Coof]

Ok thanks! I’ll be buying some coop eggs. 

[Atitagain]

Are you using salt? Are you running it 24-36 hours then shutting down?

as @Griznatchsaid at least some should of hatched. I’ve only been doing BBS for 1 1/2 years but I’ve never seen a 0% harvest, with SFB like 35-40% was my worst harvest. But I shut down at 12 hours. And always bought SFB from ACO. Always had very good harvest with ACO BBS probably close to 97%. @Tihshho have you seen a 0% when set up atleast close to correctly? I guess if they were really old like super old right?

[Tihshho]

I've had 0% before, but that was before I knew how to store the eggs. I don't think this individual is having that issue though, more so the problem is that the casings are not floating post hatch and the non hatched eggs are also sinking. I can't speak for the ACO eggs since I've not used them, yet, but generally there is a mix of floating and sinking, but around 80%+ should be floating.