Auto brine shrimp hatchery and feeder

[Paul B]

I often have to go out of town and with pipefish that only eat live newborn brine shrimp that is always a problem. I have a tank sitter that can feed the fish but I can't ask her to hatch brine shrimp every day and sit there while the pipefish eat for an hour so I designed this device which is not quite finished.
The internal mechanism is now sitting on top of the white box that will sit in the tank. (this is just for the picture) Once a day a trap door will open on top of the container and an auto fish feeder will deposit brine shrimp eggs into the container. The door will close keeping it dark inside and aeration will start inside the box. After 36 hours the eggs will hatch and the aeration will stop, a tube on the side will open allowing light in and the shrimp, who are attracted to light will swim out into the tank or I can direct them to my brine shrimp feeder. After a few hours, the tube will again close and the trap door on top will open allowing more eggs to be deposited inside and the process will repeat. All that is required for power is a small air pump which aerates and circulates the eggs and opens and closes the valve controlling the tube where the shrimp swim out. I tested the mechanism and all I now have to do is put it together and position the auto feeder on top which also opens and closes the trap door on top allowing eggs to enter.
Of course it works great on paper but I still have to test the entire thing.

 

[duromega]

Paul my respect
you're a genius

 

[Bikeboss11]

Can't wrap my head around this..... Tagging along

 

[Paul B]

No a genius would have the thing working, so far it is just a contraption that looks like it should work. Generally I would have to build a few prototypes so I will see how this one goes. If it fails I have plenty of new designs in the wings.

 

[rookie07]

Paul, what do you do with the old hatched eggshells?

Don't post how to pics until you're sure you don't want to patent/manufacture this thing!!!

 

[Paul B]

I think this would be a nigjhtmare to manufacture. The shells stay in there so I think it would only work for about 5 days which is all I need right now. To eliminate the shells would make it very complicated unless I could think of something right away

 

[ENB]

Perhaps another chamber that opens and closes for empty shells/eggs to fall into with the water being recycled through another filter/screen back into the original container. So you'd need to empty it eventually but a larger container could hold a decent amount of the waste.

 

[xclusive252]

following

 

[Paul B]

I figured out last night how to flush the chamber of water and eggs but it would require an electric valve and some more tubing. It is not difficult but I am not sure I need it for the 5 days i will be traveling. If I get time, I will design the flushing mechanism.


I hatch eggs now every day anyway and always have but when I am away I can't do that and pipefish need live shrimp every day. I use this hatchery and shell seperator now, but it is not automatic.

 

[Dan_P]

This makes it clear why you have no time for monitoring water parameters. You spend your time innovating! Once again you inspire me to think out of the box.

 

[Paul B]

I used to think inside the box, but the box was small so it was hard to breathe so I started to think outside the box where there is more room. My workshop is well equipped and I could build a space shuttle in here. A small space shuttle, but a space shuttle none the less. :Hydrogen:

The power tools ( table belt sander, band saw, drill press, are out of the picture.
This shop I recently re-designed to have more storage. My mechanic workshop is larger and in my garage.


It used to look like this, but I wanted to add the sink and neaten it up a little.


Out of all the things I designed, I am the most proud of this 30 round M-16 magazine I built in Nam, because without it, I probably would not be here today. (the normal ones hold 18 rounds while our enemy magazines held 22 rounds)

 

[vio]

I was ready to make also Auto feeder (Rotifer culture) I wait for Rob, I guess is in Vacc. Nice work Paul.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks, I can auto feed these things but these shrimp must be newly hatched every day or they are not that nutritious. So adding the eggs and keeping it dark inside is a little problem. I was hoping my auto fish feeder would open the hatch, but it is not strong enough so I have to re-design that part a little

 

[ENB]

Awesome.
And the gun mag is pure genius especially since you made it out in Nam in middle of a war with no shop.
:salute

 

[Paul B]

I had bamboo and mud along with the occasional crashed helicopter along with a fear of running out of ammo.

 

[Paul B]

I was having some problems figuring out how to get the eggs into the unit while still keeping it dark. I just came back from having two MRIs back to back so I was in the machine for an hour. That was great because during that time, I figured out how to get the eggs in the thing.

 

[iliriano]

tagging along look very interesting...

 

[Paul B]

I abandoned that design because the eggs kept clogging the tiny air vent that would let out air from the float and allow the valve to open. I also thought it was to complicated and hard to change the water. This is a much simpler design and so far is passing the tests. It is a much larger version of my normal feeder except this one allows for the water to be constantly renewed. There is an auto dry food feeder on the rim of the tank (above the funnel) that I tweeked a little so it only lets about 1/4 teaspoon of brine shrimp eggs into the funnel at the top of the tube just at the waters edge twice a day. There is a small tube (3/16") that disperses water into the funnel from the tank. That comes from my algae trough but an air bubbler would work. The water flow provides 2 services. It aerates the eggs and pushes them down the tube to the feeder and even if it doesn't, after the shrimp hatch, they will be forced down (I hope). I may have to tweek this a little but I have an other design in my head for that possibility. There is a stocking over the feeder to allow the shrimp to exit. The water being pumped into the device also changes the water in the device. "most" of the eggshells will stay under the mesh (stocking) but not all. The eggs are slightly larger than the mesh and most of them sink anyway. When I come back from vacation I will run my diatom filter if there are any visible eggs to remove from the tank but I don't think it will be a problem in a few days. Right now the 3 pipefish, 2 mandarins and scooter dragonette are all around this thing and the rest of the fish come by for a snack. I will get the fish used to feeding in this place for a few days before I go anywhere and I will be using it now. The powerheads will turn off a couple of times a day to allow the pipefish to feed without searching all over the place for new born shrimp. I like this idea even better than how I am feeding them now as it keeps shrimp in the water continousely and that is how pipefish and mandarins are supposed to eat. I will update with any problems and maybe a video.

 

[Geraud]

Thank you for the details Paul.

Something that could help is just using decapsulated eggs. Since you are using aquarium water, your hatching rate would be very high, and the "dead ones" be 5% or so. The only problem is that decapsulated cysts are actually wet. When I made it myself they were some kind of paste. The things I buy all ready from brine shrimp direct are in a dark liquid. Note that with a system with a syringe and a leadscrew, or a dosing pump, it should be possible to get something pretty nice.

When I have time(!) I plan on working on that, with refrigeration, enrichment and rinsing (which is the tough part).

 

[Paul B]

The wet eggs would be a problem to automatically dose. This design uses a regular flake food feeder which I have a couple laying around anyway.