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to feed live baby brine shrimp or wait and enrich them,this might come out as a debate but id really like to know which is actually better newly hatched or enriched brine shrimp.some sites even sugest that even decapsulated brine shrimp is better than freshly hatched.. im confused..and if so why are they less expensive then (hatchable)shrimp?ive had tanks of store bought guppies on and off for the last 20 yrs..this time im going with show guppies that are expensive. but pure strains and i want to give them the best i can buy either hatched out and fed or enriched..this might come under debate but i feel like decapsulated shrimp eggs are the lazy mans way out of hatching them then again i may be wrong it might just be personal preference..ive also found this site for cultures called the bug farm because im wanting to get worm and daphnia cultures that are clean cultures as to not or minumize harmfull bacteria into my tanks.. any sugestions anyone could help me with would be most appreciated and welcome

I always though that newly hatched BBS was better for fish in general. The older they are the less nutritious they are for the fish. As for feeding decapsulated ones I really dont know. I can see advantages to using them but I've havent looked into the issue of them much. Personal choice maybe?

You could also feed then finely crushed up flake foods. Variation in diet is always a good thing.

HTH a bit.

Lindy

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

A lazy mans way out, or for people who have tried it and found in the long run that just buying them is easier.

My manager at my store buys them himself because he has tried raising them himself, and he found out that it takes too much time and effort and buying them is better.

I havn't tried either method, so I don't have any personal input.

thank yout for the in put it basically confirms what ive felt all along and i know the older the shrimp get they lose something in the translation of nutriants comapired to the freshly hatched ones,like rotifers and daphnia though they can be enriched by products thats out there to make them better for your fish like selco,hufa enrich or plain old green water ive also read that spurlina thats powdered is really good for them too and has a high protien content to it so your fish will get the benifit of these gut loaded crustacians..or so ive read.. i havent tried it yet but would like to know if anyone else has went that extra mile for their fish..also from what ive seen here in the different forums i will most definatly stay away from black worms.. but i do want to try also other live cultures that are out there like the micro worm and the vinager eels so if anyone has had positive results on all of these please let me know ok?

lazy mans way out, may have been a really strong statement and im sorry,its never really bothered me to hatch them i just set up a goldfish bowl with a larger airstone in it as for the salt..i can put it in there to taste because if you ever sucked any through a airline tubing its hard not to forget how salty that water actually is..and useually the next day im taking them back out to feed my fish..some people have had bad experiences in hatching them i never have. but if you look at the price of decapsulated comapired to the hatchable ones their cheaper to buy and they say their better for the fish.. it just makes me think its more of a marketing ploy so they can get rid of excess unhatchable eggs is all..but then again i coud be wrong their the experts im not and i dont have any phd's in that type of science, but like a normal person to see is to believe i guess and ive put the eggs in there and they wouldnt hardly touch them put something with a little wiggle in and they go bananas...and yes i also have fed regular flake foods for years a lot of times sitting in my chair with a pair of scissors with the bottle of food and turning it into almost powder,,what gets me a lot of times is people will tell you that you have to teach your fish to eat a certain food... well with my kids its still a hassel so why should i expect anything less from my fish?

When I was in high school, I used to help the lady in the science store room, and one day she brought in brand new pedestals and mortars in. They havent been used before, and I found that it crushs fish food quite well, thus i asked if I could have one...and she did.

Now I use that to crush all my food for my guppy fry. I have a mixture of "Powdered Food of fry", "Tropical Flakes", "freeze fry brine shrimp", "spurlina flakes" and "Tropical Granuales". The frys go crazy for it. I have never seen fry go that crazy, they just pig out at it. I feed them 3-4 times a day and they seem to grow up nicely. I have hatched BBS before, since I have a marine tank, I just get the water out of that...then put it in a few containers inside a larger than filled with water and the heater set to 25*C. They hatch in a few days and are ready for harvest for the fry.

You can try getting adult brine shrimp and put them in a blender and making it tiny so the fry can fit it in their mouths. I feed them once a week as a treat for the fry. They also seem to love eatting them, but I would suggest you feed this is fry that are about 1.5cm long.

Mango

thank you mango r34. for your imput on the flake food,i guess the question still is has anyone here ever enriched their live foods for their fish and have they seen a difference in growth of their fry as compaired to feeding un enriched or flake..i live here in northwest florida and know that we have fisheries here in south florida,so last night i wrote an e-mail to Craig Watson http://fishweb.ifas.ufl.edu/Watson/Watson.htm if i get a responce to this i'll post it in here for everyone who might be interested..