Growing Brine Shrimp: A Complete Guide From Eggs to Adult

In this guide

Brine shrimp, scientifically Artemia, are one of the most useful live foods in the marine hobby. Hatching them at home is inexpensive, fairly quick, and gives you a reliable, nutritious food source for fry, small marine fish and many corals and invertebrates.

Why hatch your own

• Freshly hatched brine shrimp, called nauplii, are small enough for fry and juvenile fish to eat, and their wriggling movement often triggers a feeding response in fussy eaters.
• Brine shrimp eggs, or cysts, have a long shelf life when stored properly, so a single packet can supply months of fresh hatches.
• Hatching at home works out considerably cheaper than buying live brine shrimp regularly, and gives you control over exactly when a fresh batch is ready.

What you need

• Brine shrimp cysts, sold at most well stocked aquarium shops or online.
• A hatching container with a cone or V shaped bottom, since a flat bottomed container lets cysts settle and clump rather than staying suspended. A large plastic bottle with the bottom cut off and inverted works as a simple homemade alternative.
• Non-iodised salt, either plain aquarium salt or ordinary marine salt mix. Iodised table salt should never be used, since the added iodine interferes with hatching.
• An air pump and airline, to keep the cysts suspended and oxygenated throughout the process.
• A small aquarium light, since light in the first few hours helps trigger hatching.

Step by step

• Mix water to a salinity of roughly 25 to 30 parts per thousand, close to a specific gravity of 1.018 to 1.022, using your chosen salt.
• Check the water temperature is between 26 and 28 degrees Celsius. Cooler water still works but slows hatching considerably, and temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius should be avoided.
• Add cysts at roughly half a teaspoon, about two to three grams, per litre of water, and start aeration immediately so they do not sink and clump at the bottom. A lighter stocking density gives a noticeably better hatch percentage than a heavy one, so resist the urge to add more cysts for a bigger batch; hatch a second round instead if you need more nauplii.
• Keep a light on nearby, especially for the first six hours, and leave aeration running continuously throughout the hatch.
• Wait 18 to 36 hours. Warmer water within the safe range hatches faster; cooler water takes longer.

Harvesting the nauplii

• Turn off the air pump and let the container sit undisturbed for five to ten minutes. Live nauplii gather near the light source, empty shells tend to float, and unhatched cysts sink.
• Use a fine net or a length of airline tubing as a simple siphon to draw off the nauplii from the layer where they have gathered, leaving shells and duds behind.
• Rinse the harvested nauplii briefly in clean saltwater before feeding, to remove any residual hatching water and debris.

Feeding and timing

Freshly hatched nauplii are most nutritious in the first few hours after hatching, since they are still living off their own yolk reserves at that stage. Feed them promptly rather than storing a hatch for later use, and consider gut loading them with a phytoplankton or enrichment product a few hours before feeding if you want to boost their nutritional value further for the fish or corals eating them.

A note on storage in Indian conditions

Unopened cysts keep well in a cool, dry cupboard for months, but in humid coastal cities they last noticeably longer stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, since moisture is the main thing that shortens shelf life and degrades hatch rates over time.

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