# DIY brine shrimp



## miles

I'm interested in raising my own brine shrimp to feed to my bumblebee gobies because they prefer live food. I've read all sorts of tutorials about hatching them to feed fry, and I can do that without a problem (using the upside-down 2 L bottle method). I'm having trouble finding good information about actually growing them to a larger size.

My question is, what would be the best thing to feed the shrimp? I've read they will eat egg yolk, wheat flower, yeast, spirulina powder, soybean powder, and a bunch of other things. Obviously, wheat flower is a lot cheaper and easier to prepare than cooked, dried, and powdered egg yolk. Will my choice of food for the brine shrimp have a large effect their nutritional value to the fish? Does anyone have experience growing them out?


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## giddetm

I am going to start also there is a decent article in aquarium fish this month.


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## SuckMyCichlids

i dont know if theres much truth behind this but ive read somewhere online that the nitritional value of baby brine shrimp decreases by the hour, like i said i dont know if its tru or not but its just a thought


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## miles

That's true if you're only trying to hatch the shrimp to feed fry. It's a different ballgame when the shrimp begin to grow up because they change from high fat content (which is what fry need) to high protein content (what adult fish need). I'm just trying to figure out if the nutritional value of the adult brine shrimp depends on what I feed them or if they'll be packed with protein and nutrients no matter what they're munching on.


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## snail

Yes, I believe the food you give them will effect their nutritional value. People often give a mix of food. You might look into Spirulina. It's an algae and comes as a powder so it would be easy and provide good nutrition. It sometimes used as a food supplement so you might find it for sale locally at a health food store or look online, I've seen it on e-bay.


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## miles

I probably will just go with a mixture. The more I read it seems like there's really no single "best" thing to feed them, and the fish will benefit the shrimp having been fed different things. I'll keep feeding them a combination of flake food (crushed into powder), wheat flower and egg yolk until I run out then I'll probably get some spirulina powder or something. 

Thanks for the opinion. How often would you suggest I change the water if I'm growing out around 1/8 tsp of eggs in a 2 L bottle?


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## SuckMyCichlids

Growing Adult Brine Shrimp


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## ArtyG

I buy "Brewer's Yeast" at the local GNC health food store. They seem to like it and will thrive on it but I try to get them all fed to the baby angels and Apistogramma caucatoides by day three. I also feed Hikari First Bites fry food from Petsmart, both to the nauplii and the fish fry. Everybody seems happy..


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