Re: Shrimp eggs- Now a problem

["Darren J. Hanson" <djhanson@calweb.com>]

At 12:54 AM 10/4/97 -0400, IDMiamiBob@aol.com wrote:
>Thanks, folks.  I got the recipe.  But, Man!! I don't have that kind of time
>every day.  Can I do up a whole bunch at once, then dry them out until
>needed?  
Unfortunately I don't know of a good way to re-dehydrate artemia cysts at
home. The only descriptions I've ever heard of it being done were in
commercial settings.

>A store back in western NY used to sell decapsulated eggs that had
>been prepared and packaged commercially at a very hefty price.  
I too have seen small vials of deencapsulated artemia cysts, but at what I
consider astronomical prices. Now while I feel I've come into this
conversation in the middle, I wonder why you don't just hatch your brine
shrimp while still in the cysts? With a high quality product 90% or even
more will hatch out in as little as 18 hours depending on salinity, pH and
temperature. With careful siphoning, unhatched and empty cysts should not be
a significant problem.

>It should be doable if some company was wholesaling them.  Any ideas?
The only company I've found selling wholesale quantities are selling
deencapsulated junk grade artemia cysts. These are 100% edible as is with
12% more calories and a third more protein because none of the initial
energy supply has been consumed/converted/wasted by a hatching nauplii.
Because these are junk grade cysts, 50% or even less would hatch if you
attempted to do so. Not the same thing, after all they don't move and jerk
in the water column but they also don't die off or choke fry on an unhatched
cysts either. The supplier I found sells in 11 kg lots, but I could break
out individual 500 gram cans and reship them anywhere in the US priority
mail for $20 including tax and shipping charges. Oh, and if anybody is
thinking of going into the deencapsulated brine shrimp business, they'll
ship a pallet load (a little over 7 tonnes!) for only $8.90/lb plus shipping
and handling!

They've also got a "brine shrimp flake" that's two parts brine shrimp : one
part freshwater shrimp (gamaris sp.) : one part assorted vitamin & mineral
suppliments, binders and fillers. Sounds wonderful but they want $60 for a 5
pound bucket and that's BEFORE shipping! <sigh> If I could just hit the
lottery.....

- -- dj