Setting up a brine shrimp environment
Brine shrimp are usually grown by fish keepers who are looking for a cheap, nutritious way to feed their fish. However brine shrimp can be grown as pets in themselves, aka sea monkeys.
In general brine shrimp need water, oxygen, light, and food in order to live.
Temperature:
Recommended is 25-30°C (77-86°F)
pH
Recommended pH is 8.0, but 6.0-9.0 are ok. 8.0 is slightly basic, meaning it is above neutral (7.0). So you can add a pinch of baking soda to raise the pH.
Salinity
Recommended salinity is 30-35 ppt. Using this calculator, I estimate that 10 cups of regular water require about 4 1/4 tablespoons of salt. Use marine salt, or organic sea salt with no additions, not regular table salt, as the iodine in it will kill the shrimp/
Quality
If you are raising brine shrimp in a sea monkey or otherwise small container < 1 gal, it is extra important to keep up water quality. In general, doing a 20% water change once a week and then replacing it w/ clean water will help. You can also use a pipette or turkey baster to vacuum up the waste that collects at the bottom of the tank.
Salinity Calculator
Growing Spirulina
In general brine shrimp need water, oxygen, light, and food in order to live.
Water
You can use tap water that is boiled and cooled, to get rid of the chlorine that will kill the shrimpTemperature:
Recommended is 25-30°C (77-86°F)
pH
Recommended pH is 8.0, but 6.0-9.0 are ok. 8.0 is slightly basic, meaning it is above neutral (7.0). So you can add a pinch of baking soda to raise the pH.
Salinity
Recommended salinity is 30-35 ppt. Using this calculator, I estimate that 10 cups of regular water require about 4 1/4 tablespoons of salt. Use marine salt, or organic sea salt with no additions, not regular table salt, as the iodine in it will kill the shrimp/
Quality
If you are raising brine shrimp in a sea monkey or otherwise small container < 1 gal, it is extra important to keep up water quality. In general, doing a 20% water change once a week and then replacing it w/ clean water will help. You can also use a pipette or turkey baster to vacuum up the waste that collects at the bottom of the tank.
Oxygen
While a pump and filter is the most effective way of adding oxygen to a tank, I'm going to try and see if aerating the water with a plastic syringe will do the job. I may also try later to add an aquarium plant.Light
Brine shrimp need about 8 hours of light per day. I don't get enough natural sunlight, so will use a grow light above the tank.
Food
Brine shrimp are foragers, so they will eat anything that is a particle size small enough for them. Many people feed them yeast or boiled egg yolk, but it seems that dried spirulina, bought at either a pet or health store, is the best food for them. In addition, if you are able to get algae growing in the tank the shrimp can eat that.
Overfeeding is one of the easiest ways the kill the shrimp. Feeding more food than they can eat will result in the rest of it contaminating the water and leading to bacteria growth. Bacteria in general are bad because they consume the oxygen in the water and will cause the shrimp to die.
Sources
Growing Adult Brine Shrimp, by William BergSalinity Calculator
Growing Spirulina
