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Supplementing with Baby Brine Shrimp
Supplementing Your Food
Feeding baby brine shrimp is an important part of raising beautiful, healthy fish. And, with very little effort, you can turn a portion of your brine shrimp hatch out, into encapsulated powerhouses of nutrition.

It’s not as hard as it sounds.

Really. All the mad scientists’ articles that you read make it seem almost impossible to raise these things beyond a couple of days. In truth, you only need a good plan, a couple of plastic containers, a little air, and some food for the little things. If you choose the food you give to your little baby brine shrimp wisely, you can turn those babies into super-food for your guppies.

The Magic of Spirulina
You will probably find spirulina algae listed on your quality flake food. Maybe your like me, and have read of the benefits of spirulina, to boost immunities, enhance color, and over all digestive track health. I have seen the results in my own tanks. I buy spirulina algae, in bulk flake form, mixing it with my staple food, to enhance it even further. And, I enrich my brine shrimp with these very same magic algae.

Let's assume you already have a time tested “recipe” for hatching out your brine shrimp eggs. I’ve tried everything I think, and still, just a 20 oz bottle inverted, and some air provides me with excellent results. After they hatch, I catch and separate them from the empty shells, and feed my eager guppies. I reserve the hatch water, and return any un-used shrimp to the salty brine. This is all dumped into a flat bottom plastic coffee can, and I drop an open-ended airline in with them. They are good. They could actually live quiet a while, even if you did nothing else. As their yolk supplies burn off, they begin to filter feed, on whatever they can find in the water. This is where you turn into mad scientist, and go trying to feed these little guys. Fear not, this is actually your chance to pack nutrients into them, nutrients that will eventually end up in your fish.

Building Your Own Food
Day one and two, to the mad scientist, are kind of uneventful. Dissolve a small amount of yeast in some water, and put enough of the milky liquid in the plastic jug to cloud up the water. Stir. Add a half of cup fresh brine water ever day, to allow for the increase in biomass, and to give the brine shrimp the room they need to grow. They now have all the nutrients they need, to grow to a size big enough to load them up with some beneficial vitamins. Keep yourself occupied, with feeding your guppies the new days’ baby brine shrimp hatch out. I keep four days worth of “left over” baby brine shrimp in constantly rotating containers, each marked with the hatch date. After the brine shrimp feed for the first two days on the yeast, I prepare some powdered spirulina algae for them. I simply mix the powdered spirulina with a little water, and stir it in with the brine shrimp. Keep adding fresh brine water every day, to accommodate your little growing vitamins. Done.

Brine Shrimp Facts
Brine shrimp are selective filter feeders that survive a wide range of temperature and water conditions. There is a myriad of supplements that you can encapsulate in brine shrimp; targeting your individual strains’ needs. In the four days that I care for these little bug gars, they molt some 25 times, and increase in biomass three fold. I pack them full of spirulina, and set them loose in the guppy tanks. At this size, the guppy truly must hunt them down. A challenge your guppies will be up for! In a slightly brackish guppy tank, a brine shrimp can live 4-5 hours, and at this size, they swim away from both fish and filter. Endless hours of fun and exercise for your fry, juveniles, and adult guppies!

Why stop there?

You take painstaking steps to ensure that your guppies are living in the best possible environment. Your already feeding brine shrimp to your masters. Why not take that little extra step, to ensure their good health? You will enjoy healthier fish, large drops of fry, and great survival rates.

Brian Comstock Omaha, NE