JBL Artemio Set Complete Brine Shrimp Hatchery

JBL Artemio Set Complete Brine Shrimp Hatchery is a complete kit for hatching live brine shrimp at home as a first food for fry.

Key Features

• Live food that fry will actually take: Newly hatched Artemia nauplii are small enough for most fry to swallow and they move, which triggers a feeding response that dry powder does not. For a lot of egg laying species they are the difference between a brood that grows on and a brood that fades.
• A hatch in one to two days: Cysts added to warm salt water hatch in roughly twenty four to forty eight hours, so a batch started in the evening is feeding fry within a day or two.
• The funnel shape does the work: The cone and the air feed keep the cysts turning over in suspension so they hatch evenly, instead of settling into a dead layer at the bottom where they will not develop.
• Everything in one box: Breeding container, sieve for separating the nauplii from the hatching water, stand and air pump.
• Runs as more than one culture: Extra containers work from the same pump, so you can start one a day and have fresh nauplii every morning rather than one large hatch and nothing after it.

How A Hatch Runs

• Brine shrimp cysts need salt water. Use JBL ArtemioSal or a plain non-iodised salt at the rate given on the pack, mixed into dechlorinated water at around twenty five degrees.
• Add the cysts and run the air hard enough to keep everything circulating. This is one of the few times in fishkeeping that vigorous aeration is exactly what you want.
• After a day or two switch the air off. The empty shells float and the nauplii gather towards light, which is how you separate them.
• Draw the nauplii off and pour them through the sieve, then rinse the sieve under fresh water before feeding. The hatching water is salty and full of indigestible shell.
• Feed only what the fry clear in a few minutes. Uneaten nauplii die and foul a small rearing tank quickly.

Getting The Most From Each Batch

• Feed the nauplii as soon as they hatch. They live on their own yolk sac and lose most of their food value within about a day of hatching, so a batch left standing is worth far less than a fresh one.
• Empty, rinse and dry the container after every hatch. A film left in the cone sours the next culture.
• Keep unused cysts dry, sealed and cool. Damp cysts lose their hatch rate and do not recover.
• The hatching water smells, so set the culture up somewhere ventilated rather than in a cupboard.

Good To Know

• The kit is the hardware. You will also need Artemia cysts and a hatching salt to run it, so ask us to confirm what is in the box and add them to your order if they are not.
• Nauplii suit fry with a mouth big enough to take them. Very small fry, such as many egg scattering species in their first days, need an infusoria or liquid food first and can move onto brine shrimp after that.
• Keep cysts and the culture out of reach of children, and do not use the equipment for anything to do with food.