Enriching Brine Shrimp

[CJs Aquatics]

Hello everybody, hope today was productive for you all. So recently I stumbled across a topic I haven’t heard about which was enriching live baby brine shrimp. The theory was that upon hatching they don’t actually contain much nutrition and to optimize there nutritional value products were added which they consume essentially gut loading them. From there when they are eaten by our fish the fish also take in all of the nutrients consumed. In the video I watch the gentleman was using a product by fritz I’ve never heard of. My question is can anyone expound on this topic more as it is very new info to me but sounded intriguing. I guess a sub question would be, could I use vitachem in a batch of them to essentially do the same thing if this is in fact something that works? Thanks for your time and any responses 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/31/2022 at 4:50 AM, CJs Aquatics said:

Hello everybody, hope today was productive for you all. So recently I stumbled across a topic I haven’t heard about which was enriching live baby brine shrimp. The theory was that upon hatching they don’t actually contain much nutrition and to optimize there nutritional value products were added which they consume essentially gut loading them. From there when they are eaten by our fish the fish also take in all of the nutrients consumed. In the video I watch the gentleman was using a product by fritz I’ve never heard of. My question is can anyone expound on this topic more as it is very new info to me but sounded intriguing. I guess a sub question would be, could I use vitachem in a batch of them to essentially do the same thing if this is in fact something that works? Thanks for your time and any responses 

The theory goes as such: BBS that hatch are full of protein (great for freshwater fish), but not with vitamins (bad for marine fish). By leaving some BBS in a Petri dish and dropping some vitamin concentrate in, after X amount of time they will be a superfood for marine fish. I've tried it once, it was a bit of a hassle but my angelfish fry loved it! I'm sure some other members have also done it before, maybe they can add to this. Typing this out in a hurry because school starts in 10, Bye!

[Flumpweesel]

Obviously what you feed the food can improve the food. But as I understand it we feed BBS close to hatching point so they haven't absorbed their egg sac fully and they can't/won't eat until that stage has passed.

Then you can start feeding them but it obviously requires moving them out of the hatchery and feeding them up. Or hatching them in something big enough that the water won't foul so fast. I have heard of people using spirulina powder but it's more effort and tank space than I want to mess with.

It's basically keeping sea monkeys bonus they will breed.

[gardenman]

A product called Selco is what commercial growers of brine shrimp feed them. It's pricey but has been used for decades. It was developed in the 1980s and has been used a lot since then with good results.

[modified lung]

I ran a study on feeding enriched brine shrimp for some researchers years ago. The fish actually did worse. The whole concept of gut loading their prey with food doesn't really make sense ...at least not in every situation. The gut load may have nutrition but doesn't necessarily have the nutrition the fish needs.

Enriching with vitamins specifically formulated for fish does make sense though. If you can get brine shrimp or daphnia or whatever to filter in vitachem with their food, assuming they absorb or hold onto enough of the vitachem in their gut, then I'd think the fish would benefit.

But there's still the question of if that's a practical approach. How much vitachem would you have to add to the culture water for the brine shrimp to take in and hold enough to have a positive affect on your fish? We won't know until someone tries. So try it! What are you still sitting there for? Go go go!!