[BubblesOwner]

Space being rather challenging to find in my home currently, I was unable to set up shrimp funnels under heated lamps in which to hatch baby brine shrimp. So I came across a product called a Shrimpery. It is a little black box with a lid that has a large hole in the center. You put your baby brine shrimp hatch mix in the box with some fresh cold water, swirl it around until you can no longer see the salt crystals, then put the lid on. Also included is a clear capsule with a white lid that has a tiny hole in the center of it. You fill this with fresh water and place it upside down on the black box, where the opening is.

Now my other problem was heat and light. They want you to keep in temperatures of 80 and above for the hatching period, which can be 24-48 hours. My house is not a hot place. And the location that I have for the box is not the brightest. The box needs the light because the shrimp are drawn to it, and are suppose to find their way up the tiny little hole in the capsule lid into the fresh water.

So I came up with this solution. Find a relatively lightweight flash light that has balanced weight (no huge handles that would make it fall over to the side), with a flat cover over the bulb.



Using Rechargeable batteries (because regular batteries would get very expensive for this method!), start your flashlight up. Place it on top of the fresh water capsule.



Not only does the light attract the shrimp into the capsule as was intended, but it also effectively heats your water enough that the shrimp will hatch. Plus, it makes a neat night-light if it's in your room!



If you have trouble using the Shrimpery or this method, be on the look out for a problem I ran into with two of my hatch mix batches that I thought were duds. I let them sit 36+ hours without any activity, and just ended up throwing out the water.

When the shrimpery is set up and you are waiting for your shrimp to hatch, if the 24 hours pass without any activity at all, look through your capsule at the tiny opening in its lid. There may be an air bubble blocking the way. Air bubbles cause an effective barrier between the shrimp and the freshwater capsule, as they cannot break through it to flood the entryway themselves. If this occurs, gently squeeze the capsule to produce some pressure fluctuations to try and dislodge the bubble. If this is unsuccessful, simply remove the capsule and try reinserting it.

The first time I used the Shrimpery I did not use the flash light, and the resulting batch of hatched brine shrimp was not very impressive. Now that I use the flash light, it has increased my shrimp hatch rate by at least 30%.

[Devs]

I bought one of those when My betta babies were born. Tell you the truth,I wasn't very impressed with it. I still occasionally use it to mix up a fresh batch of shrimp-but I have gone to a tupperware container,and an airstone.The shrimp were hatching in the Brinery box,in room temp. conditions,but I wasn't impressed with the amt. of shrimp,or how long they were living.Maybe the flashlight would help warm the water. I found with my own experiences that more importantly than the temp., was adding the airstone. My shrimp supply seem to have quadrupled since I've done that.There was a few times before I started using the airstone that the shrimp solution smelled like it went bad.Since adding aeration,I haven't had that prob. Maybe with your ideas,and my airstone-you can tweak to "perfection" :lol: