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hey guys,

i was thinking... u know those decapsulated brine shimp eggs you can buy these days to improve hatch rates? Could you just feed them to your fry w/o hatching them?

it would be a whole lot easier and possibly even more nutritious as the BBS dont use up any energy hatching or swimming round.

anyone?

The problem is the wiggle factor, a lot of fry seem to go better on live food because of that wiggle factor, and some won't even touch the decapped stuff.

I've decapped my own eggs once or twice, and what bugs me is whether or not the de-encapsulation process does more harm than good, in that the cyst is then unprotected and vulnerable AND may well have absorbed far more bleach than I think. Am I just feeding food that has been destroyed by chemicals? As far as i can tell, storebought decapped eggs are done in a similar way so there isn't much difference there.

Also, the eggs are bigger than the hatched BS, so if you have small fish (killies, danios, etc) you may need to hatch them out in order for the fish to be able to get them in their mouths.

You'll find that NZ BS eggs are smaller than the standard BS eggs and that the smaller fish will take the NZ species more readily (NZ eggs sold under the name "AusAqua" in Australia, available @ Auburn for Sydney-siders)

There is also the popcorn method, where you expolode the BS eggs in the microwave. Apparently it works fine

I think, if you have viable eggs, hatching them is the best solution. If they aren't viable, decap and feed once the fry are taking 'dead' food of that size.



Last edited by Callatya at 24-Jan-2006 04:53

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

wow someone replied!

well i dont think the "wiggle" factor should be a problem, my fry are quite happy taking crushed flake. But yes that is a very good point about the de-encapsulation process. hmm i wish i knew that BEFORE i bought them!

whats this PO method your talking about? how do you do it? have u tried it?

Sorry, I believe that was my stuff up, I think I left the C out.

Popcorn, like bursting the eggs. Its on wwww.waynesthisandthat.com

I tried it once and ended up with dust, but I think i well and truly overdid it. Plus cooking the eggs might have a similar effect to bleach, not sure.

there is this guy called Keith Hand who imports these awesome killifish pellets in all manner of grades. I haven't tried them yet, but I hear that even young bettas are taking them and that the growth is pretty good, and thats an accomplishment as they usually rely pretty heavily on 'wiggle'. Maybe worth thinking about for next round

In the meantime, give them a shot, I mean there are some pretty lousy things in standard fishfood anyway, even if thse do have some nutritional damage or residue, it probably won't cause any noticable damage.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

thanks for the info calla, in theory i think the pop corn method would be safer then the chemical decapsulation. simply coz it doesnt use bleach. fyi these r the ones i'm buying http://www.ntlabs.co.uk/product_details.php?product_id=69.

it says 20% better nutrition, whatever that means! 20% from what? pretty lousy amount of info provided. i am going to contact the guy i'm going to buy it off to see if he has, or can get any further info.

We have had several batches of fry over the years and they all go absolutly crazy over newly hatched brine shrimp. They not only thrive on it but it gets them moving around the tank more which is good for them too.
I know your in Australia and I'm in the UK but I found a giant sized bag of brine shrimp eggs (Artemia Cysts) on ebay and they posted worldwide, these are the cheapest we found anywhere - we had 1 bag and it will last us for years as we just use small amounts at a time.