Re: Altaspinosa Fry

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

> How about large brine shrimp for the adults? I've been told they have
> very little nutritional value. They sure do like em! 

The problem is that the shrimp itself is mostly undigestible shell and
water. 

What provides the nutrition with baby brine is the yolk sack. (And that's
why the deencapsulated artemia cysts we use give such good results.
None of that energy source has been used by the shrimp yet so it's all
available for the fish!)

Live adult brine shrimp, at normal temperatures, can completely fill/empty
their gut in approximately 2 hours. (personal communication with David
Kawahigashi, Director of Research, San Francisco Bay Brand) That
means if it's been more than 2 hours from the time the shrimp last ate until
you feed them to your fish, you aren't really feeding your fish much at all.
(Hint: Most stores don't feed their shrimp.) It is possible to feed shrimp at
home, however. They are a non-discriminatory filter feeder which means
anything in the water with a particle size of 30 microns or less will
packed into their gut -- food, spirulina, antibiotics, oils, vitamins, or other
enrichments. (personal communication D. Kawahigashi) 

The simplest way to accomplish this is to put your shrimp into a brine
solution (2x sea water is about right) and add a solution of powdered fry
food in water or a commercial liquid-fry food. After the water clears,
you'll want to rinse the shrimp and place them in fresh water and keep it
as cool as possible without freezing. The cool temperatures will slow
down their metabolism and keep them from expelling what they just ate.

If you choose to use frozen shrimp, be careful with what you buy. After
touring San Francisco Bay Brand's facility and seeing how they use a
cryogenic system with liquid nitrogen to flash freeze their shrimp, I'm
very impressed with their quality. (They actually take them from the
cryogenic system to an industrial walk-in freezer to WARM UP enough to
be safely handled!) Slower freezing allows ice crystals to form which
tear up the individual cells in the shrimp/worm/what have you. Try
thawing some of your favorite frozen fish food out some time. When it's
thawed, rinse away the liquid. What's left, is all that's left for your fish to
eat. All the part you rinsed away just fouls the water and promotes algae
growth and high ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels.

San Francisco Bay Brand has a frozen baby brine and at least 2
different frozen enriched adult brine products in their line. I highly
recommend them all. (And I'm not getting paid to say that either.)

- -- dj