300 gallon Reef. Have live brine shrimp in tank

[hsosa]

. My 300 gallon tank consist of about 12 fish. Mostly giant tangs and clownfish. two large Angels also. Ive had my current set-up for about 8 months now. I was feeding my fish live brine shrimp a few months ago. Now I have colonies of brine shrimp living and breeding in my main tank. I know the larger tangs probaly do not eat them. I suspect my 3 small clowns eat live brine at night. Does anyone have these brine colonies growing in their tanks. My tank is pretty mature. Ive had the same system for about 6years now. I have a 100 refugium with macro alage . Here are some pics of my fish

 

[Anonymous]

Nice fish!

I would think what you are seeing is colonies of mysis shrimp? Mysis often breed in healthy tanks and are about the same color and size as brine, so people often mistake them for brine shrimp. They like to swim about in the corners of tanks and areas where there is macroalgae or other protection from fish. It would be VERY unusuall for the brine shrimp to start breeding in your tank, but the mysis is very likely, which is lucky, because mysis is a very good food for fish.

 

[Anonymous]

Ditto on that.

 

[Anonymous]

Considering that brine require highly saline conditions in which to live and breed, I strongly doubt it's brine as well. This is actually better for your fish, too.

Good job!

 

[tangir1]

Ditto, ditto, ditto.

 

[fishfanatic2]

Ditto?
Ditto.
Really!
Ditto.

 

[wade1]

Considering that brine require highly saline conditions in which to live and breed, I strongly doubt it's brine as well. This is actually better for your fish, too.

Actually, most are cultured with only 1.020 or less salinity. They breed in it just fine, although they can certainly breed in up to 1.030.... but, the chances of brine having viable nauplii in a tank are almost zilch as they need heavy algae concentration to survive (although it is possible, just not likely).

Wade

 

[hsosa]

thanks for the responses. I dont really know what they are. I do feel that they are brine. I also have mysis shrimp. maybe they are baby clowns but highly unlikely. I wish i could take a pic. Ive been looking at my tank closely and these shrimp are basically just everywhere taking over. I also have a lot of algae grwoing in the tank.

 

[hdtran]

Silly question, but could your shrimp possibly be Grammarus amphipods?

 

[fungia]

i thought i had brine shrimp growing in my tank but when they got bigger they turned out to be amphipods like hy says. maybe that is it? you are lucky to have either of these breeding in your tank, free food!

 

[rayjay]

I routinely add thousands of live adult brine shrimp to my tanks and I would bet you couldn't find any after about 20 minutes as the inhabitants go nuts hunting them down and feeding on them.
The odds that any would survive any time to produce young are so remote it's not worth considering.
While I could raise my brine shrimp in 1.020, I now use 1.030 as it lessens the chances of culture wipe out. Brine shrimp can survive much higher levels of salt to the point they are the only remaining life form survivors.
For those interested:
RAISING BRINE SHRIMP

 

[silly34]

Thanks for the link! (rayjay)

B.

 

[hsosa]

I guess i can describe them. brine shrimp body. although the end of the body there is a slight split. shrimp legs . there are very small to about the size of a adult brine shrimpl they sort swim or run on the glass. with an s motion. I have tons of them/ My two small clowns are eating them. Too bad my angels are too big to see them here is apicl

 

[Anonymous]

I have the same thing, and I could have sworn they were brine shrimp as well. I know they aren't Grammarus amphipods because I have many of them as well as amphipods that make little tunnels in my sand bed. My fish tend to ignore them, because they stick to the dark areas of my rock where they can't be reached. (Until night time, when they are everywhere) It's probably because I feed them well, other than my psychadelic mandarinfish, who has been finding food on his own for close to two years.

 

[Ben_Wilson]

rayjay, great article on brine. Can phytoplankton be raised as well? Any articles on that?
________________
Ben

 

[rayjay]

Yes, phyto can be raised at home but in my case it was too much extra work for all the numbers I'm working with so much more convenient to use cryopaste.
My page on DT's phyto is probably redundant now as I've read that the formulation has been changed and it is not reproduceable now like it was when I was using it.
I'm sure if you do a search on this forum and others you will get a lot of replys on growing phytoplankton.
DT'S PHYTOPLANKTON REPRODUCTION

 

[John_Brandt]

I guess i can describe them...they sort swim or run on the glass. with an s motion.

If they run on the glass they are almost certainly not brine shrimp (Artemia). I was very skeptical from the start of reading this thread. These animals are probably copepods.

 

[Anonymous]

Considering that brine require highly saline conditions in which to live and breed, I strongly doubt it's brine as well. This is actually better for your fish, too.

Actually, most are cultured with only 1.020 or less salinity. They breed in it just fine, although they can certainly breed in up to 1.030.... but, the chances of brine having viable nauplii in a tank are almost zilch as they need heavy algae concentration to survive (although it is possible, just not likely).

Wade

My apologies for the misinformation, and thank you Wade for the correction.. although it does leave the question, if the water's nowhere nearly salty enough to be considered "briney", then why are they called "brine shrimp"? Maybe seamonkey is better after all.. <hands Wade a banana>