3d printed brine shrimp hatcheries

[richiev]

Continuing the printing theme. I printed some brine shrimp hatcheries. These are the kind where you put the eggs in the outer ring with water, and they swim into the inner ring, towards light, when they hatch.

I love the fact that the old hotness in brine hatching was centered around "oh no, you need the perfect amount of bubbles in an inverted tube so each egg is perfectly massaged". The new hotness is "put them in water with no movement at all, and it'll work out".

My experience so far is it works out.

Future ones will be printed in black to control light distribution. This one is clear because that's what I had available at the time.

As with my other ones, I'll create a BAR entry for reaching l tracking. They're free. Plan on a couple days turn around if I have them available, and pickup curbside in Redwood City.

 

[Turkeysammich]

Those are the best ones.

 

[MolaMola]

I love the fact that the old hotness in brine hatching was centered around "oh no, you need the perfect amount of bubbles in an inverted tube so each egg is perfectly massaged". The new hotness is "put them in water with no movement at all, and it'll work out".

LOL. Just saw this post. In my classroom students investigate brine shrimp and algae in basically a ziploc bag. Shake and open/close once per day when possible and that's it. A few students have had them growing in their bags at home since March 2021!

 

[Srt4eric]

Continuing the printing theme. I printed some brine shrimp hatcheries. These are the kind where you put the eggs in the outer ring with water, and they swim into the inner ring, towards light, when they hatch.

I love the fact that the old hotness in brine hatching was centered around "oh no, you need the perfect amount of bubbles in an inverted tube so each egg is perfectly massaged". The new hotness is "put them in water with no movement at all, and it'll work out".

My experience so far is it works out.

Future ones will be printed in black to control light distribution. This one is clear because that's what I had available at the time.

As with my other ones, I'll create a BAR entry for reaching l tracking. They're free. Plan on a couple days turn around if I have them available, and pickup curbside in Redwood City.

View attachment 35927

What printer do you have?

 

[Qwiv]

Cool. How are you making the center sieve spoon?

 

[richiev]

What printer do you have?

I had a 12yr old Up Plus. I recently upgraded to a 6yr old Printrbot from FB marketplace. Printers are incredibly obnoxious, but as long as you know the limits and aren't looking for perfection it's alright. For aquarium stuff I think a $100 used one that can do PET-G is fine. You do have to consider it a second hobby though, and something that you want for the customizability. It'll never be more cost effective to have a printer and print things yourself than just buy the stuff, after accounting for the printer + filament + electric + hours and hours of fiddling.

 

[richiev]

Cool. How are you making the center sieve spoon?

I printed the spoon, but I didn't use it. It seemed far more efficient to just have a plastic syringe and suck out the shrimp from the center, and then top off with a bit of clean saltwater.

 

[Turkeysammich]

I printed the spoon then bought a brine shrimp net for 99 cents. Cut and glued it to the spoon. Works great. Some people said you can use your wife’s old pantyhose too. Lol.

 

[richiev]

I printed the spoon then bought a brine shrimp net for 99 cents. Cut and glued it to the spoon. Works great. Some people said you can use your wife’s old pantyhose too. Lol.

That works too! I'd try the syringe next time. I never sucked any eggs in, and it was super easy. Even better if you use decapsulated brine and don't care if you suck in eggs too.

 

[Qwiv]

I printed the spoon, but I didn't use it. It seemed far more efficient to just have a plastic syringe and suck out the shrimp from the center, and then top off with a bit of clean saltwater.

Makes sense since that really just leaves ammonia and dirty water behind, so as long as you can deal with the ammonia I guess it isn’t needed. Meaningless in a large tank. It does make a difference at larger volumes, but not these little things.

 

[JVU]

Not DIY or free, but I’ve found the Brine Shrimp Hatchery by Ziss paired with the brine shrimp eggs from Aquarium Co-op (shells float, shrimp sink) work much better and easier than other solutions.

Ziss Brine Shrimp Hatchery | Live Brine Shrimp for Feeding Baby Fish

Ziss makes the best brine shrimp hatchery on the market because of its strong, impact-resistant plastic and ability to run a heater and thermometer inside.

www.aquariumcoop.com

Brine Shrimp Eggs | Best Food for Fish Fry | Aquarium Co-Op

Grow fish fry big and healthy by feeding live baby brine shrimp. Our eggs have a high 90% hatch rate with easy separation. Add water, salt & air to hatch.

www.aquariumcoop.com

 

[richiev]

Makes sense since that really just leaves ammonia and dirty water behind, so as long as you can deal with the ammonia I guess it isn’t needed. Meaningless in a large tank. It does make a difference at larger volumes, but not these little things.

Do you have any data/links/evidence that hatched brine water, particularly decapsulated brine, tends to have measurable ammonia? I would be interested to see that, since I would not expect that. Particularly if you're harvesting them to feed while they're still small and nutritious.

 

[Qwiv]

not sure how measurable it would be or if it even mattered at that small scale. When you hatch a lot of brine shrimp is say a big bottle, they start eating their yoke sac and producing waste like everything else and the level will rise, the eggs start to rot and bacteria will start to grow, especially if you run it a while hatch every egg in the vessel. but if you harvest them by the ml early on in a tiny tray, I can’t imagine the amounts would matter Assuming you are not breeding sensitive fry and just making a nice snack or getting a new fish to eat.

now if you were using a big hatch container to feed baby fish in a small tank with only a sponge filter, it matters. Just look in a breeders forums. Some people even wash the bbs.

that tray was originally designed to keep adding brine shrimp multiple times keeping some of the water where maybe at some point it would matter, but I always poured the water out after a few times. Kosher salt and water is pretty cheap. Did you even include the egg shell pour spout In your print?

 

[richiev]

not sure how measurable it would be or if it even mattered at that small scale. When you hatch a lot of brine shrimp is say a big bottle, they start eating their yoke sac and producing waste like everything else and the level will rise, the eggs start to rot and bacteria will start to grow, especially if you run it a while hatch every egg in the vessel. but if you harvest them by the ml early on in a tiny tray, I can’t imagine the amounts would matter Assuming you are not breeding sensitive fry and just making a nice snack or getting a new fish to eat.

now if you were using a big hatch container to feed baby fish in a small tank with only a sponge filter, it matters. Just look in a breeders forums. Some people even wash the bbs.

that tray was originally designed to keep adding brine shrimp multiple times keeping some of the water where maybe at some point it would matter, but I always poured the water out after a few times. Kosher salt and water is pretty cheap. Did you even include the egg shell pour spout In your print?

Negatory on any spout. Brine shrimp are cheap. I just used what I needed and tossed the rest.

My experience doing that with eggs I decapsulated had them hatched in around 24hrs at California winter garage temperatures, so unless you're doing large scale breeding I would think it's best to just dump and restart.

That being said, it's pretty trivial to add more eggs. As long as you keep the water level above the holes they shouldn't end up in the middle. Though again for me with decapsulated it's different, because there's not a ton of shells floating around

 

[Bolicks]

Not DIY or free, but I’ve found the Brine Shrimp Hatchery by Ziss paired with the brine shrimp eggs from Aquarium Co-op (shells float, shrimp sink) work much better and easier than other solutions.

Ziss Brine Shrimp Hatchery | Live Brine Shrimp for Feeding Baby Fish

Ziss makes the best brine shrimp hatchery on the market because of its strong, impact-resistant plastic and ability to run a heater and thermometer inside.

www.aquariumcoop.com

Brine Shrimp Eggs | Best Food for Fish Fry | Aquarium Co-Op

Grow fish fry big and healthy by feeding live baby brine shrimp. Our eggs have a high 90% hatch rate with easy separation. Add water, salt & air to hatch.

www.aquariumcoop.com

I use this one too, and love it!