Ziss Brine Shrimp Hatchery

[CJs Aquatics]

Hey everyone, random thought… I typically use 2 of ziss brine shrimp hatcheries so I have daily brine however I’ve been slacking lately so one is usually empty. I had this strange idea that it could potentially be a decent set up for culturing your own spirulina as well. I haven’t started this experiment because I wanted some thoughts but that would offer another great food source for fish as well as an easy way to harvest as you could drain and reuse water and potential strain the fresh spirulina just like you do live baby brine…Idk much about it I just know it’s decent food source for a lot of things… thoughts? 

[AnimalNerd98]

Hmm, interesting question to pose. I think it comes down to how would the fish consume it? As I understand it, spirulina is a biomass of single-celled cyanobacteria. So although it can form clumps, it can also exist in a state almost like the algae that is suspended in green water. Most of the prepared foods we give to fish containing spirulina have been processed in some way to make it palatable or easy for the fish/inverts to eat like pellets or even gel-foods. If you fed the green water from spirulina, it may be great for feeding filter feeders and tiny fry but may be less effective for everything else. If you feed the clumps they can form, this may be easier for algae eaters to pick at and take in large gulps. You could also process your spirulina yourself but it seems like more trouble than it is worth considering how relatively cheap we can get spirulina powder or get fish foods containing spirulina.

I'm curious to see what other nerms think.

Edited September 26, 2022 by AnimalNerd98

[CJs Aquatics]

@AnimalNerd98 my hypothesis is to fill the hatchery with clean water possibly bottled and add a starter culture, the airstone the culture comes with will run enough to distribute the food for the culture and to circulate the water. When the culture takes off, the water will be drained to be reused and part of the algae collected in a mass via the strainer or from the top of the hatchery (clump of algae). Then the water will be reused with the remainder of the culture and the cycle will continue. The spirulina clump will be immediately rinsed and fed in bulk to the fish. This is just a rough draft, I’ve seen it done on YouTube but I thought that hatchery might be the perfect way to do a culture like that as well and offer another premium food option. 

*airstone the hatchery comes with not culture… it’s late here lol 

[AnimalNerd98]

OOH! Could you link the video? I'm curious to see how fish go after fresh spirulina. 

I heard spirulina also needs a high alkalinity, right? Some species of it need some salinity as well? Let me know what you find out! 

[CJs Aquatics]

I will try to find it, it’s not of them eating the algae it’s of someone setting up a culture and harvesting a tablespoon a week or so of fresh spirulina, and how to sustain it, I’ve seen a few like that