Artemia culture?

[ichthyogeek]

Does anybody here raise Artemia? Not just hatching out eggs for fry, but actual culturing to get multiple generations from one hatch. I've started a culture, but am wondering if anybody else has as well.

[Luis A M]

easy thing
You can set small cultures (buckets)feeding green water,(live or paste).Or large vats feeding cheaper yeast/Spirulina mix.Waste water is fine,any salinity.

[ichthyogeek]

How do you get rid of the cloudy bacteria water? Will that go away after the Artemia mature enough to start filter feeding the bacteria out? The culture is also starting to smell like a blackworm culture gone bad, and there seems to be some sort of brown algae...even though I know that I just added cysts and Phyto-Feast to freshly made saltwater. How do you do a water change without getting rid of all the baby brine shrimp?

[Luis A M]

You don´t.They do it
Artemia thrive under the worst conditions,and filter feed on bacteria clearing up the water.

[rayjay]

I live in Canada where conditions are not suitable for pond (outdoor) growing and with limited space indoors I need to culture in high densities.
I also can't afford the expensive cones which are best to keep food in circulation so I use 26g Rubbermaid pails propped on an angle to have a low point where the open ended air line is placed.
I currently use live nanno for the first week and then greenwater made up of spirulina powder and Algamac 3050 blended for at least two minutes in water.
Unfortunately the basement sit's in the mid to high 60's so growth rates are slow, but I found yields overall were higher than when I heated the cultures.
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/brineshrimp.html

[ichthyogeek]

rayjay, I'm getting this odd brown algae in the brine shrimp growout tank. I hatched the brine shrimp directly in a 2.5 gallon tank, and the day after I add RN Live Phyto-Feast, this stuff popped out. I added an astrea snail and two tiny asterina stars to help combat it, but how would you go about cleaning the tank?

[rayjay]

From the sounds of it you are doing a low density culture in that 2.5 tank. Phyto Feast would be too expensive to use for dense culturing.
I've not had a brown algae form in my containers, especially so soon after starting the culture.
IMO it's bad to have started the culture in the tank and apparently continue the growout with the same water. Empty or unhatched cysts or membrane residue congealing may be what you are seeing. Algae is unlikely to have grown that fast.
Are you using standard cysts or decapped ones? How many cysts did you put in the 2.5?
You need to hatch out in a hatching container ( http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/Hatcher.html ) and then separate the live nauplii from the empty and unhatched cysts, or cyst membrane residue in the case of decapped before adding to the growout tank.
I'd recommend treating with peroxide first if you are using regular cysts.
As the nauplii grow and progress through the molts, you will end up with a lot of garbage in the container that comes from the molts and from feces produced. This turns the water brown and needs to be cleaned up as it gets bad because the brine will feed on it also, thus lowering the nutrient value of them.
I let the container sit so anything not live settles, and then siphon off the live brine, clean the container well, and then replace using new water. Cleaning interval depends on your set up and the density of the culture, and even what foods and how heavily fed the brine are so it's not a fixed thing for each hobbyist's set up.
I made a net from Brine Shrimp Directs 150 mesh bag (can make 2 per bag) and sit it in a larger mesh net that is siliconed half way up. The larger mesh net holds enough water then when siphoning to help cushion the brine as they get siphoned into the 150 mesh inside the large mesh net. (Hope that makes sense for you)
Unfortunately you still get some garbage that doesn't pass through the mesh, but as the brine grow you can use a larger mesh for later cleanings and the garbage will all pass through.
I wouldn't consider putting anything like stars or snails into the culture and don't feel it is going to help you any, and indeed could be a source of pathogens being introduced to the culture.

[ichthyogeek]

It might be a bit too late for me to hatch the shrimp in a hatching container, but the next time I try this, I think I'll go your route. I initially tried with ~3 grams of non-decapsulated cysts@80%hatch rate, but accidentally forgot to replug in the air after harvesting a few for various other fish I have. The culture died, and I rinsed everything out with fresh water, no sterilizing process at all (probably mistake #1). After mixing new saltwater, I added ~2 grams of non-decapsulated cysts, and every three days (twice so far), I have stopped the air supply for 15 minutes, and after luring the shrimp to the bottom of the tank with a flashlight, have skimmed the cysts off the top of the tank. I don't have any idea about how many cysts were added, but it was quite a lot based off of the cloud of nauplii that form every time I siphon the top off the tank. Thanks for the advice!