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- Hey, it's Thomas here and today we're doing a quick review
on Brine Shrimp Direct's Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish.
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If you're looking for an easy way to hatch brine shrimp
without needing to power equipment like an air pump
that automatically separates the baby brine from the cysts
so that you can get those picky eaters
like dragonets or pipe fish started
or even just treat all of your reef inhabitants
to live planktonic food,
then you'll wanna check out this hatchery dish.
I've used quite a few different hatchers over the years
and this one's my favorite,
10 out of 10.
Feeding alive planktonic foods
is a great way to vary the diet of your reef inhabitants.
It can also help encourage finicky eaters
like dragonets, pipe fish and seahorses to start feeding
and provide nutrition to hard to feed baby fish,
and ultimately is a welcome treat
for just about everything in your tank.
Baby brine shrimp, otherwise known as Artemia nauplii,
have been a long standing favorite live food of aquarists
for a number of reasons.
Most importantly,
it is really easy to hatch brine shrimp.
It takes very little effort
and the brine shrimp eggs themselves
are relatively inexpensive
and easy to store for long periods of time.
The size of baby brine is also fantastic
for a wide variety of planktonic feeders
from baby fish to corals,
and it is really easy to gut load them for extra nutrition.
Brine Shrimp Direct has one of the simplest, easiest
and least expensive hatcheries
for regularly hatching baby brine to feed your tank.
Easy enough that if you want baby brine on hand every day,
it's a cakewalk.
In the box you'll find the hatchery dish,
the white baffle system, the harvesting sieve,
the brine shrimp egg scoop and some easy instructions.
The hatchery is simple, but really smart.
It doesn't require an air pumper or any other equipment
and uses an ingenious baffle system
to automatically sort the live baby brine from the cysts,
making collection and feeding a breeze.
Like I mentioned in the instructions are really easy.
Firstly, though, you won't want to move the dish
once you're hatching, so pick a room
that's going to get some light
and is around room temperature,
which should be between 68 and 72 degrees.
Next mix some de-chlorinated tap water or RDI water
with aquarium salt or synthetic sea salt mix
that you already have on hand for your water changes,
place the white baffle ring with the notches face down,
fill the container with salt water to the fill line,
use the included scoop to measure out the eggs.
I personally recommend the BRS high yield brine shrimp eggs,
the hatch rates on these are incredible.
Then sprinkle the eggs around the outermost ring.
Next, place the cover back on top in the closed position
and insert the harvesting sieve into the center opening.
Then after 36 to 48 hours,
you should start seeing those baby brine shrimp
right in the center opening over top of the sieve,
so you can harvest them.
So what's actually happening on the inside
is that the eggs on the outer most ring
are blocked by the white baffles,
but as the baby brine shrimp hatch,
they're attracted to the light
at center opening and they navigate the baffle system
towards the light
automatically separating themselves from the cysts
so that you can easily harvest them without worrying
about accidentally scooping up the empty cysts
along with them.
There are a number of ways that you can feed
the baby brine shrimp to your inhabitants,
including just using the sieve,
lifting it out with some baby brine shrimp in it
from the hatchery, and then directly into your tank.
You can also grab a cup of water from your tank
use the sieve to dump them into the cup,
and then use a turkey baster or other feeding tool
to target feed.
Personally, I'd actually move the baby brine
into a separate small container of salt water
with some spirulina mixed in to gut load them.
After a few hours of swimming
in the spirulina rich saltwater,
they should be full of the green stuff and extra nutritious.
Now, if your goal is to grow
out the baby brine to feed some larger inhabitants
you won't be able to do it very easily in the Hatcher.
So a simple five or 10 gallon tank
with a sponge filter will be your best bet.
Moving all of the baby brine
into a separate tank also gives you the opportunity
to rinse off the Hatcher and start the next batch.
So you always have live brine shrimp on hand.
At 25 bucks, this is really a great tool to have on hand
to add some variation to the diet of your reef inhabitants
or even feed some picky feeders
especially because you don't need an air pump
which, you know, hums or could potentially siphon.
This is just easy, breezy, beautiful live baby brine.
You may not want to personally feed live food forever
and aim to eventually get your live feeding fish
over to prepared foods.
There are lots of different options for foods to try
frozen food probably being one of the most obvious
when you're trying to convert a live feeder over
to prepared foods.
Ryan and Randy actually have a video outlining all
of the best fish foods for 2019.
And you can check it out right here.
Lots of different options there,
some are even both fish and coral food simultaneously.
And I didn't actually expect that
in that kind of form factor.
It's pretty neat.
Check it out.
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