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HATCHING and GROWING BRINE SHRIMP

By Diana Walstad 1
October 2017

The usual method for providing brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana) as live food for fish involves
making new batches every day in freshly prepared saltwater. This means mixing up lots of saltwater. If
the shrimp don’t all hatch the first day, which is often the case, it wastes expensive eggs. More than one
fish breeder has decided that feeding live brine shrimp just isn’t worth the trouble.
My method involves raising the shrimp for 3-4 days before feeding them to the fish. I get maximal
growth of the shrimp before the hatching bottle gets overpopulated. The shrimp are still drawing on
their yolk sacs for some of their nutrition, so whatever food I feed them doesn’t have to be perfect. The
shrimp are still small enough for newly borne livebearers, but now, having grown 3-4 times their
hatched size, they are still attractive to juveniles and even adults (Fig).
But wait….If my method was easy or intuitive, aquarium hobbyists would have been using it long
ago. Yes, I can get a good hatch rate in “clean,” freshly prepared salt water, but the brine shrimp
quickly lose their food value and die within a few days.

Guppies Going After 4-Day-Old Brine Shrimp

The shrimp are big enough to attract all ages—from newborne fry to adults. The juvenile guppies
in this photo are less than a month old and growing fast. They get fed live brine shrimp 1-2 times per
day—along with other foods. If their enthusiasm for hunting down live brine shrimp is any
indication of nutritional value, then live brine shrimp is good food indeed!

1ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: I would like to thank Gerald Pottern, charter member of the Raleigh Aquarium
Society—and an authority on live foods—, for his assistance on this article.
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I assume that most readers know the basics of hatching brine shrimp and are successful at it.
However, in view of all the conflicting methods “out there,” I’ve described my own hatching method.
I’ve found that there is plenty of leeway in terms of temperature, salinity, egg source, light, etc. For
example, if the water temperature is 65ºF instead of 80ºF, no problem. The eggs will take longer to
hatch, but they’ll still hatch.

GETTING STARTED

I recommend that hobbyists start out small

just to see for themselves how the hatching
bottle—with patience—can be turned into a
brine shrimp “nursery.” Hatch out brine shrimp
as usual but add a “pinch” of food to encourage
bacterial growth. Harvest the nauplii (i.e.,
newly hatched brine shrimp) the next day, but
instead of discarding the hatch water, filter out
the egg shells (using the brine shrimp net) and
pour the water back into the same bottle. Don’t Brine Shrimp “nauplii”
clean the bottle! Start another hatch in the bottle These newly hatched shrimp are the same size as
with the filtered saltwater. See how it does. If the eggs (dark dots).
the water is completely clear, you could add
another pinch of food. You want the water to be slightly cloudy, but not too cloudy. And it shouldn’t
smell. Keep using the bottle and old saltwater for 3-4 weeks. Ideally, you should be getting the same
good hatch rate of nauplii that you got when you first
set up the bottle. Over time, the bottle will become
“seasoned”—colonized by the type of bacteria that will
sustain brine shrimp growth.
If you are encouraged, try using the seasoned bottle
to grow out shrimp for a few days before harvesting.
You can set up a new bottle for just providing nauplii.
In this way, I got a feel for what works to grow out the
shrimp, plus gradually added new bottles to my system.
If at any time the shrimp die, all is not lost. On rare
occasions, I miscalculated or an accident occurred
(lengthy loss of aeration) such that the brine shrimp
died and the water smelled. I might change some of the
old saltwater and aerate the bottle overnight before
starting a new batch. I have not yet reached the point
where I have had to throw out old saltwater.
3-Day-Old Brine Shrimp
After hatching, I let the brine shrimp grow
THE‘ABC SYSTEM’ for 3 days in their hatching bottle. Note the
increased size compared to the eggs.
Once I got comfortable with the concept and realized Temperature was ~74°F. Results were so
its potential, I moved on to my full fledged “ABC good, I added another bottle to grow out
System.” I have 5 bottles going at a time, each one shrimp for 4 days.
started on a different day. Here’s how it works.

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Bottle #1 contains the oldest shrimp (See

Table). The other bottles contain younger ABC Setup
cultures. After harvesting the 4-day-old Bottle Rotating Batch Bottle Contains
shrimp in bottle #1 (labeled temporarily as # Label Age
“A”), I set up this bottle with a new batch of
eggs. Bottle #1 thereupon becomes “E.” 1 A 4 days Shrimp
Bottle #2, with 3-day-old shrimp—to be 2 B 3 Shrimp
harvested the next day—now gets labeled as 3 C 2 Shrimp/nauplii
“A.” Only bottles labeled as A,B, or C would
get any food, because they contain older 4 D 1 Eggs/nauplii
shrimp that can actually use the food. (It takes 5 E 0 Eggs Only
about 24 hours after hatching for nauplii to
fully develop their digestive systems [1], so there is no point in adding food to Bottles D and E.)
The next day, I harvest 4-day-old shrimp from Bottle #2, now labeled as “A” and continue the
systematic rotation. Thus, every day I am feeding
fish 4-day-old shrimp.

HATCHING FACTORS

Eggs: I’ve gotten essentially the same results using

eggs from either San Francisco Bay or the Great Salt
Lake. I keep the eggs in a sealed container in the
refrigerator and add 1/8 level teaspoon to 1 quart (~ a
liter) of saltwater in a bottle. By always starting with
the same amount of eggs, I am better able to gauge
how successful the hatch is. I have found that brine
shrimp cultures started with a double dose of eggs
(1/4 tsp per quart of saltwater) sometimes do well for
a day or two, but the culture won’t last 3-4 days.

Food: In nature, brine shrimp feed off of microalgae.

For artificial cultivation, the following foods have
been used: Spirulina algae powder, fry food, yeast,
boiled egg yolk, and rice bran. Foods high in lipid
(i.e., fats) and protein, are recommended for young
brine shrimp [2]. Yeast is actually a relatively poor Brine Shrimp Factory
Each of the five bottles holds a brine shrimp
food, because it has cell wall proteins that are hard
culture of a different age. The clothes pins
for the shrimp to digest [2]. The food should be identify the age of the bottle’s hatch and get
added as tiny particles, not big food chunks that will rotated each day to the next bottle in the
only foul the water. Shrimp are filter feeders, so they sequence.
cannot ingest or “chew on” large particles. I now
prepare a water slurry of spirulina algae--using a mortar and pestle. I store the dry tablets in the freezer
and the slurry in the refrigerator. (Spirulina algae can be purchased at Whole Foods or in health food
stores.) I squirt in enough of the slurry to Bottles A,B, and C to give the water a very faint green tinge.
I have found that I only have to add some food about once every week or so.

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Aeration: Major pitfall. Aeration must be gentle.

Brine shrimp—like newborn fish—will die if they
are constantly fighting the current. While nauplii
may survive vigorous aeration, it is not ideal. I
keep the bubbling gentle (~1-2 bubbles per second)
such that the water surface is barely disturbed.
Bubbles are released from glass tubes (5 mm O.D.
X 12 inches long) attached to the airline tubing.
[Lashing the airline tubing to a chopstick with a
rubber band (See Fig) also works.]

Temperature: Eggs hatch overnight at 80- 85°F. At

65- 75ºF, it takes 1-2 days for all the eggs to hatch.
(I wonder how many hobbyists have thrown out
perfectly good eggs when they didn’t all hatch the
next day.) With my ABC method, temperature
doesn’t matter, because I am not depending on an
overnight hatch. I give every egg time to hatch.

Saltwater Mix: I add 1/3 cup of ordinary table salt

(NaCl) 2 and ¼ teaspoon of baking soda (NaHCO3)
to a gallon jug and fill it with tapwater. The density
Harvesting To collect the brine shrimp, I use a
works out to 1.020 g/cc and a salinity of 27‰ (parts pitcher, gravity, a brine shrimp net, and airline
per thousand). The baking soda insures that the tubing attached to a chopstick with a rubber band. I
water has an alkaline pH. (The oyster shells and sea never clean the inside of bottles; that scum/eggs
shells that I add to the bottles provide some stuck to the sides is part of the bottle’s ecosystem.
calcium.)
Hobbyists with softwater (GH of 4 or less) may
need to use marine salts for preparing their saltwater. Marine salts automatically adjust the pH to
seawater’s ~8.3 pH, and they contain more minerals (e.g., potassium, magnesium, calcium, etc) than just
table salt. For a time I used marine salts, but I found that table salt worked just as well. (The hard
tapwater and shells apparently provide enough minerals for the shrimp.)
Brine shrimp can be hatched at 5‰ to 85‰ [3]. Salinities higher than seawater’s 35‰ were found to
increasingly inhibit hatching [4]. One investigator [5] got his brine shrimp to grow and reproduce just
fine at 20‰. My 27‰ salinity represents an arbitrary compromise.

Water Conditioner: After the salts dissolve, I add an aquarium water conditioner that eliminates heavy
metals. Otherwise, the eggs will not hatch in my tapwater, because it contains a little zinc. Hobbyists
who continuously get suboptimal hatches should try adding a water conditioner to the hatching bottle.
Many conditioners contain EDTA, which chelates heavy metals such as copper, aluminum, and zinc,
thereby rendering the metals non-toxic to the eggs and young shrimp.

2
Despite conventional wisdom that one must use non-iodized salt, I recently did a comparison test and found that
iodide made no difference in brine shrimp hatching or survival. (Indeed, iodide is an essential nutrient for
shrimp.) However, I would avoid table salts that contain aluminum silicate (added as an “anticaking agent’). I
use Morton’s Iodized Salt® that contains calcium silicate, a much more desirable additive.

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Bottles: To ordinary quart-size plastic bottles, I add a little aquarium gravel, along with sea shells and
oyster grit to maintain water calcium levels. This material also increases surface area for bacteria, many
of which (e.g., nitrifying bacteria) live attached to surfaces. Added material should be scanty, so that it
does not create anaerobic pockets at the bottom.

Harvesting: I siphon out as much brine shrimp as I need. Light will encourage them to collect in a
certain area of the bottle for partial harvests. To collect an entire batch, I siphon down to the bottom
including some of the “dregs.” (A goodly number of shrimp will congregate at the bottom of the bottle.)
After collecting the shrimp in a brine shrimp net and the saltwater in a pitcher, I quickly rinse the net
contents with tapwater before adding the shrimp to tapwater in a small cup. From this cup, I feed the
fish. Using a 10 ml pipette, I can easily distribute portions between several tanks. Egg casings are
relatively inert and will not pollute the tank, so I don’t mind if some casings come along with the
shrimp. (I trust my fish to know the difference between an egg casing and a live brine shrimp.)
Before distributing the live brine shrimp to the tanks, I always get the bottle back under aeration and
bubbling. I never leave a bottle too long without aeration; otherwise the bacteria in the water might die.

Setting up a New Hatch: After getting the shrimp safely into the feeding cup, I transfer some of the old
saltwater back to the bottle, swirl the water to suspend the empty shells and then quickly pour the
saltwater back through the brine shrimp net into my collection pitcher. I discard the dregs caught in the
net and then pour the old saltwater (from the pitcher) back into the bottle. I add the eggs and—if the
water volume has declined—a bit of replacement water.

DISCUSSION

Live brine shrimp have long been recognized as a superior food for young aquarium fish. Indeed,
aquaculturists the world over have not yet found a better food source than brine shrimp nauplii for
raising their farmed lobsters, scallops, crabs, tiger shrimp, and aquarium fish.
Less recognized is that adult and juvenile shrimp are better nutritionally than nauplii. Aquarium
hobbyists are instructed to use the shrimp soon after hatching. Within 6-8 hours (at 80ºF), the nauplii
reach the Instar II stage of development [6]. They cannot eat during this time and have lost energy
breaking out of their shells and now swimming around. 3 This explains why decapsulated eggs (i.e., the
brine shrimp egg minus its shell) fed directly to fish has been shown experimentally and repeatedly to
support faster fish growth and greater egg production than nauplii [7,8,9]. 4
Since brine shrimp eggs never hatch all at once, it is virtually impossible to get an optimal harvest
with the conventional method. If one harvests too soon, many of the eggs haven’t hatched and are
wasted; if one waits for a more complete hatch, many of the nauplii will have lost their food value.
What to do? Culturing the shrimp for a few days after hatching solves the harvest timing problem.
Moreover, the overall nutritional value of brine shrimp increases once the brine shrimp start feeding.
For example, the average protein concentration increases from 42% in nauplii to
3
For example, the Instar II stage of the San Francisco Bay strain was found to contain 27% less energy than Instar
I nauplii [6].
4
The high concentration of HUFA (highly unsaturated fatty acids) in the eggs is believed to be responsible for the
superiority of decapsulated eggs as a fishfood. Other advantages are lower production costs and the smaller size
(0.2 mm for the eggs as opposed to 0.4 mm for the nauplii) such that the small fry of egg layers can eat them [10].
That said, when the experimental fish in one study [7] received nauplii plus a commercial pelleted food, they did
just as well (weight gain and egg production) as fish receiving only decapsulated eggs.

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to 60% in adults [3]. Critical amino acids (histamine, methionine, phenylalanine and threonine) absent
in nauplii are present in adults [10].
Some hobbyists describe old saltwater as liable to cause disease in fish. However, because bacteria
have trouble crossing the osmotic divide from saltwater to freshwater, brine shrimp are much less likely
to cause disease in fish than freshwater livefoods.
Years earlier, when I had less fish to feed, I kept a shrimp batch going 5-7 days in a seasoned bottle
with old saltwater. I harvested only a small portion of the shrimp each day and allowed the rest to
continue growing. This system worked very well. The daily removal of some shrimp kept the bottle
from becoming overpopulated so that on ‘Day 5’ or ‘Day 6’ I still recovered a fair number of shrimp.
Now that I am raising a
large number of guppy fry, I
use up a bottle every day. The
brine shrimp are 3 to 4 days-
old, approaching the sweet spot
for maximal growth and
survival.
Investigators [11] showed
that brine shrimp, even when
well-fed on a good food source
(rice bran), began to decrease
in numbers at 4- 5 days (See
Graph). The decline in
survival at 4- 5 days for all
parameters coincides with the
shrimp’s complete absorption
of its yolk sac.
The investigators obtained
interesting results using Food Type and Survival [11]
Graph shows the effect of no food and 3 food sources—rice bran,
bacteria as the only food Pseudomonas bacteria, or Vibrio bacteria—over an 8 day culture period.
source. Apparently, not just Except for the two conditions where investigators added bacteria, brine
any old bacterium will do. The shrimp were grown under sterile conditions.
graph shows that shrimp grew
much faster when fed
Pseudomonads than Vibrio bacteria. At 4 days, shrimp fed on Pseudomonad bacteria did as well as
those fed rice bran—over 90% survival In contrast, shrimp fed Vibrio bacteria—along with unfed
shrimp—were dead at 4.5 days. That said, the investigators concluded that brine shrimp probably do
best feeding off a combination of food sources.
The same investigators [11] also showed that it took time to colonize desirable bacteria in the
shrimps’ environment. On ‘Day 1’, the population of tasty Pseudomonads was insignificant. After one
week of brine shrimp culturing, though, the Pseudomonads in the bacteria microflora had increased to
20%; after two weeks, 90%.
This means that one may have to wait for the colonization of optimal bacteria. I’ve found that new
bottles are much less productive than older, “seasoned” bottles. Colonization with desirable bacteria
takes time—perhaps analogous to waiting 3-4 weeks for the development of nitrifying bacteria in the
bio-filter of new aquarium setups.

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My bottles contain a mix of bacteria, many introduced by hitching a ride on the eggs. These bacteria
are associated with the brine shrimps’
natural habitat. Investigators showed
significantly greater survival for shrimp
cultured in old shrimp water than in
seawater seeded with biofilter bacteria
[12].
Nauplii can tolerate low oxygen (2
ppm [13]) and seem almost impervious to
ammonia. The lethal concentration (LC50
at 24 hours) for total
ammonia/ammonium is over 1,000 ppm
[14]. However, brine shrimp are
exquisitely sensitive to heavy metals. I
suspect that many poor brine shrimp
hatches may be due to metal toxicity, not
bad eggs. Metal toxicity probably
explains why some hobbyists can never
get a decent hatch in freshly prepared
saltwater. [My reused saltwater has
enough DOC (dissolved organic carbon)
to chelate the metals, and therefore, Effect of Zinc on Brine Shrimp Hatching [15]
prevent metal toxicity.] Experiments were conducted at 28°C (82°F). Zinc levels in
Graph shows the effect of various graph (0, 0.1, 1, 5 and 10) represent µM (micromolar)
concentrations with 1 µM equal to 0.065 ppm zinc. In separate
concentrations of zinc on brine shrimp
experiments, the investigators showed that copper was 10 to 100
hatching. The zinc concentration
times more toxic than zinc.
blocking 50% of hatching was
determined to be about 1 uM, which is 0.065 ppm. My well water contains 0.8 ppm zinc—over 10
times more; brine shrimp will not hatch in saltwater prepared from it unless I add a water conditioner
that contains a metal chelator (e.g., EDTA). Other hobbyists have reported traces of copper in their
municipal tapwater, often enough to keep brine shrimp from hatching.
My bottles can go for months producing abundant brine shrimp. As long as the water is slightly
cloudy, doesn’t smell, and I’m getting good harvests, I assume that the shrimp have enough to eat, but I
haven’t added too much food. With my ABC method, I add food only when the shrimp need it. Since
the shrimp will eventually be harvested, any added nutrients are going to be removed—in the form of
fattened shrimp—from the ecosystem. Thus, nutrients are going in, but they are also being pulled out
with each harvest.
Recently, I tested the saltwater in one of my older bottles for nitrates and ammonia and found none.
The “Balanced Shrimp Bottle” may be analogous to the “Balanced Aquarium.” Nutrient input (food,
eggs) is balanced by nutrient removal (harvested shrimp).
Hatching brine shrimp eggs and raising them to feed fish doesn’t need to be a complicated, time-
consuming process of continuously mixing up new saltwater or using decapsulated eggs for hatching.
Eggs have hatched consistently for me under a variety of conditions- dim light, 10‰ to 35‰ salinity,
high ammonia (>50 ppm), and a wide temperature range (65ºF- 85ºF). My old brine shrimp eggs bought
in 1990 and stored in the freezer, are still hatching after 27 years.

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Because of their intrinsic value as a source of food for farmed fish and marine invertebrates, the
demand (and high price) for brine shrimp eggs is predicted to continue [16]. Aquarium hobbyists can
help themselves by learning to use brine shrimp eggs frugally and optimizing hatching conditions.
Allowing brine shrimp to grow for 3-4 days before using them enhances brine shrimp as a live food for
aquarium fish.

REFERENCES

1. Unknown. 2015. Growing Brine Shrimp for Tropical Fish Food. http://fishkeepingadvice.com/brine-shrimp/
2. Marques A et al. 2005. Effects of bacteria on Artemia franciscana cultured in different gnotobiotic
environments. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71: 4307-4317.
3. Persoone G and Sorgeloos P. 1980. General aspects of the ecology and biogeography of Artemia. In:
Persoone G et al (Eds). The Brine Shrimp Artemia (Vol 3). Universa Press (Wetteren, Belguim), p 36.
4. Dwivedi SN et al. 1980. Mass culture of brine shrimp under controlled conditions in cement pools at
Bombay, India. In: Persoone G et al (Eds). The Brine Shrimp Artemia (Vol 3). Universa Press (Wetteren,
Belguim), pp. 175-183.
5. Nambu Z, Tanaka S and Nambu F. 2004. Influence of photoperiod and temperature on reproductive mode in
the brine shrimp, Artemia franciscana. J. Expt. Zoology 301A:542-46.
6. Dhert P et al. 1997. Possible applications of modern fish larviculture technology to ornamental fish
production. Aquarium Sciences and Conservation 1: 119-128.
7. Tye M, Rider D, Duffy EA, Seubert A. Lothert B and LA Schimmenti. 2014. Nonhatching decapsulated
Artemia cysts as a replacement to Artemia nauplii in juvenile and adult zebrafish culture. Zebrafish DOI:
0.1089
8. Lim IC et al. 2002. Use of decapsulated Artemia cysts in ornamental fish culture. Aquaculture Research 33:
575-589.
9. Adewolu MA et al. 2009. Growth performance and survival of hybrid African catfish larvae (Clarias
gariepinus X Heterobranchus bidorsalis) fed on different diets. The Zoologist 7: 45-51.
10. Malla S and Banik S. 2015 Production and application of live food organisms for freshwater ornamental fish
larviculture. Adv. Biores. 6: 159-167.
11. Gorospe J and Nakamura K. 1996. Associated bacterial microflora in Artemia-rice bran culture. Israeli J.
Aquaculture 48: 99-107.
12. Verschuere L et al. 1999. Microbial control of the culture of Artemia juveniles through preemptive
colonization by selected bacterial strains. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65: 2527-33.
13. Bossuyt E and Sorgeloos P. 1980. Technological aspects of the batch culturing of Artemia in high density.
In: Persoone G et al (Eds). The Brine Shrimp Artemia (Vol 2). Universa Press (Wetteren, Belguim), pp 55-
82.
14. Chen, J-C, Chen K-J, and Liao J-M. 1989. Joint action of ammonia and nitrite on Artemia nauplii.
Aquaculture 77: 329-36.
15. MacRae TH and Pandey AS. 1991. Effects of metals on the early life stages of the brine shrimp, Artemia: A
developmental toxicity assay. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 20: 247-52.
16. Lavens P and Sorgeloos P. 2000. The history, present status and prospects of the availability of Artemia
cysts for aquaculture. Aquaculture 181: 397-40

Diana Walstad is the author of Ecology of the Planted Aquarium (2013). For more
information about her books, see: http://dianawalstad.com.