Ziss brine shrimp hatchery

[Mr Gumby]

Hi folks, currently have my first batch of shrimp bubbling away.

I've noticed quite a lot of eggs collecting at the bottom is this normal?

[GoofyGarra]

How long into the hatch is this?

Maybe the air stone is keeping eggs trapped against the bottom?

Edited June 7 by GoofyGarra

[Mr Gumby]

On 6/7/2024 at 5:00 PM, GoofyGarra said:

How long into the hatch is this?

Maybe the air stone is keeping eggs trapped against the bottom?

It's about 18-20 hours in, I don't heat so run 36-48 hours 

[GoofyGarra]

my best guess would be they are trapped between the airstone and the bottom and with the bubbles from the side there is nothing to dislodge them

[Mr Gumby]

On 6/7/2024 at 5:07 PM, GoofyGarra said:

my best guess would be they are trapped between the airstone and the bottom and with the bubbles from the side there is nothing to dislodge them

Do you think shortening the pipe will help?

[GoofyGarra]

On 6/7/2024 at 12:12 PM, Mr Gumby said:

Do you think shortening the pipe will help?

i would recommend just removing the airstone.You will get a shorter pipe and better mixing at the same time.

Edited June 7 by GoofyGarra
typo

[Rube_Goldfish]

I ended up removing that air diffuser altogether and installing an approximately one inch piece of flexible (standard) air line tubing between the lid and the rigid tube, with the idea being to have that rigid tube end as close to the bottom as I could without it directly touching. @Cory explains it here at about the 1:20 mark:

(YouTube embedding doesn't seem to be working; try this link but delete the space between "you" and "tube": https://m.you tube.com/watch?v=d3osdgb7BGw&pp=ygUqemlzcyBicmluZSBzaHJpbXAgaGF0Y2hlcnkgYXF1YXJpdW0gY28gb3Ag )

Edited June 7 by Rube_Goldfish
Fixed YouTube link

[TOtrees]

On 6/7/2024 at 2:33 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

I ended up removing that air diffuser altogether and installing an approximately one inch piece of flexible (standard) air line tubing between the lid and the rigid tube, with the idea being to have that rigid tube end as close to the bottom as I could without it directly touching.

I've done exactly the same. 

@Mr Gumby if you have unhatched eggs settling on the bottom, my first guess would be that you need more air, to create more turbulence and keep it suspended. I will say that even in my "optimized" setup (I say that not to mean it's perfect, but it's as good as its going to get and the outcome/yield is excellent), I do see a small amount of unhatched eggs settle on the sloped walls of the bottom of the hatcher. Not as much as in your pic, maybe 10-20% of that. But in both of our cases, I'm guessing that's a pretty tiny proportion of the amount of eggs in each 48hr run. 

Since this is your first batch, you're not out of trial and error yet. 🙂 Is there point where more air will pick some or all of that up? 

[doktor zhivago]

I just give mine a stir every couple hours if I walk by and think about it. No problems after that.

[Mr Gumby]

So a quick update, I've decided that it's just a bad batch of eggs.

I've run two batches on a 36 hour soak and I'm getting maybe 10% hatch rate and I'm being generous at that.

I also tried a batch iny old hatcher with similar results 

My usual place for eggs was having issues with the website so I tried another place. Lesson learned!

[Mr Gumby]

Further update

I got some more eggs from a different supplier and had yet another failure.

Then I thought to myself maybe I'm just getting the salinity wrong being new to the Ziss hatcher so I ran it again with more salt but I also tried a batch in my old trusty hatcher that I always get good yields from but it's quite small.

Both failed!!!

Now I'm wondering if all UK sellers are importing from the same place and something has gone terribly wrong at the wholesalers????

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 6/14/2024 at 5:06 AM, Mr Gumby said:

Further update

I got some more eggs from a different supplier and had yet another failure.

Then I thought to myself maybe I'm just getting the salinity wrong being new to the Ziss hatcher so I ran it again with more salt but I also tried a batch in my old trusty hatcher that I always get good yields from but it's quite small.

Both failed!!!

Now I'm wondering if all UK sellers are importing from the same place and something has gone terribly wrong at the wholesalers????

That's very frustrating! Maybe try the new eggs in the old hatchery? Just trying to eliminate the variables, you know?

Just to be clear, though, when you say both batches failed, you're saying that you got very low yield? Would you mind posting your "recipe"? Maybe the community's collective wisdom can spot whatever is wrong.

For me, I ran into a problem about six or seven months into using my Ziss (the only hatchery I've ever used). The three things I ended up changing (I wasn't scientific enough to isolate the three variables, sorry) was: a) improve my post-harvest cleaning to include a hydrogen peroxide wipedown; b) use ACO brine shrimp salt since my water softener strips out all the calcium from my tap; and c) add three drops of straight bleach when I put the eggs in, based on advice @Sammy posted on this thread, citing a Tropical Fish Hobbyist article. My hatches are probably better than ever now.

[Galabar]

Have you tested your water for chloramines?  Maybe the municipality has increased it lately?

 

[Mr Gumby]

On 6/14/2024 at 10:45 PM, Galabar said:

Have you tested your water for chloramines?  Maybe the municipality has increased it lately?

 

no i haven't but it seems very coincidental that the last batch of eggs were fine in my old hatchery. Bought new eggs when I got the Ziss hatcher and suddenly have issues