Decor or
Distinction
Hatching Guide
After Assembly of the Hatcher is complete, you will need the following items;
1. Water - Regular tap water will generally work fine. It does not need to be dechlorinated. The aeration eliminates the chlorine before the eggs are hatched and it can even help to breakdown the shells.
a. Water Temperature - a temperature of 80F to 82F is ideal and should result in a 24 hr hatching time with maximum hatching rates. Lower temperatures down to about 76F will work as well, just with a slower hatching time, more like 36 hrs.
b. Water pH - Most tap water will work fine, typical range of between 7.5 and 8.5. If you have a lower pH and your hatch rates are poor, you can try an additive to increase your pH to 8, but this is generally not needed.
2. Salt - Standard Iodized Table Salt works great and is easy to measure with the included spoon, but almost any salt will work fine. Larger salt crystals, like rock salt, are less dense and will require more salt to achieve the correct salinity.
3. Brine Shrimp Eggs (Or Cysts) - most any eggs will work, but best to use 90% or 95% hatch rate eggs.
4. Lighting - The cysts(eggs) require light to hatch and should be in an area with moderate to strong lighting for the duration of the process. If you can set a lamp next to the hatcher, that will provide ample light.
5. Air pump - a standard aquarium air pump will work. It is best to have a control valve to regulate air flow, but for smaller pumps this may not be needed.
Hatching Process
1. Insure that the Plug is tightened and your lights are on.
2. Attach and turn on the air pump. Air flow should create enough turbulance to mix components thoroughly, but not so much that you get splashing over the sides of the 2L bottle
3. Add 6.5 Cups of water and stabilze to a temperature between 76F and 82F. Either room temperature or with an added heater. Check for leaks at this time. See FAQ if there are leaks.
4. Add one spoonful (2TBSP) of fine grain salt, such as table salt. If larger grain salt is used, you should add 37grams by weight. Stir if needed. Specific gravity of 1.018 is ideal.
5. Add up to one Spoonful (2 TSP) of Cysts (Eggs). Less can be used for smaller sized batches.
6. After 24 hrs at 80F to 82F, the mixture should look something like this, although if you used fewer eggs, it will not be so dark. To be sure, you can place a small amout of the mixture on a white paper towel and look under 10X magnification. You should see live brine shrimp with unhatched eggs and shells mixed in. Eggs are the dark dots. The unhatched shells will look similar but be lighter in color.
Note: A 5/8" OD Hose can be inserted into the exit drain for convienient harvesting.
10. Mix the shrimp with fresh aquarium water and feed to your fish.
11. Empty Water and Rinse Hatchery. Use a pipe cleaner to clean the air channel to prevent help prevent clogging. You can also use compressed air in a can, to clean out the channels in the base. Do not reuse water.
7. Once you are ready to harvest the eggs, turn off the air for 5 minutes. The shrimp will sink and the shells will float.
8. Turn the plug counterclockwise to open slowly and allow the shrimp to drain out into your brine shrimp net.
9. Once enough shrimp have drained and before the shells begin to flush out, close the plug by turning clockwise. You do not need to harvest all of the shrimp at one time. Typically some eggs will continue ot hatch and while the living shrimp will become less nutritious over time, you can continue to harvest shrimp for another 12 hrs or so. Just turn your air pump, heater, and light source back on and repeat from step 7 when you would like to harvest additional shrimp.