Breeding Brine Shrimp

Hello folks, sorry I've not been around for a while.

My 7 yo was given an "Aqua Critters" set for her birthday. When my husband and I were children, we knew them as sea monkeys. As an adult fish keeper, I know them as brine shrimp (artemia).

As you can probably imagine, the toy kit leaves a lot to be desired (for aeration, you are instructed to put holes in a plastic pipette with a pin!). So I am trying to improve the set up with my fishtank spares.

We failed to get the eggs included in the kit to hatch. So my husband ordered 10g online (the smallest amount available). It is A LOT of eggs! A tiny amount went into the hatchery, and they successfully hatched. The instructions said to leave the hatchlings in the hatchery for 3 days, then transfer them to the tank (1.2l). We have been using water from my fishtank supplemented with table salt. The first night in the tank, the water went cloudy pink and we think the shrimp started dying.

The research I have done is all about breeding artemia for fish food so seems to use a cone with a tap on the bottom, whereas we have a tiny tank (with purple sand and a plastic mermaid!). Can anyone advise / point me to a recommended set up for keeping artemia?

I'm pretty sure we need to improve aeration, but I'm not sure if my spare bubble line would appropriate. I'm also unsure whether the tank needs additional heat and / or light. And I'm also concerned about the stocking level.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Hi @Helen

I have hatched and raised Artemia to feed to fish fry. But, I've not kept them beyond this stage of development. I can't say for sure but my guess is that the reason for the tank water going pink may be because you used Table Salt. I believe this is iodized. When I hatched Artemia, I used natural Rock Salt. I got this from a supermarket.

More information about raising these critters here:

https://www.wikihow.com/Care-for-Sea-Monkeys

JPC

Not all table salt is iodised (the only one I've ever found was Cerebos iodised salt) but they all contain anti caking agents.

Aquarium salt is also pure sodium chloride.

Americans seem to have nothing but iodised salt. I argued with an American on another forum about this, so I looked at every brand of salt in several supermarkets and only Cerebos salt had iodate in the list of ingredients. I know that iodate is added to salt in places far from the sea to prevent thyroid problems, but nowhere in the UK is far from the sea so we don't need it. But a large area of the USA is a long way from the sea so they routinely add it.

Most UK salt contains just sodium chloride and sodium ferrocyanide (the anti caking agent). Have a look at the ingredients next time you are in a supermarket 

makes no difference whatsoever what salt you use, i have used table salt, rock salt and sea salt exactly the same hatch rate and i used to hatch shrimp by the million when i was seriously breeding, 20 tanks full of fry mostly angel fish. used to cost a fortune for the tins of eggs. (billions in each tin)
to grow the shrimp to adults, get rid of the substrate, you want a clean bottom and you need light and warmth. small water change every day and feed mostly with green water.