Easist BBS Ever

A few months back, I couldn't hatch BBS for love nor money.

I researched all over the place. I tried many of the suggestions from members of  the AusAqua forum.

I tried many of the DIY suggestions from YouTube.

Then one of the AAQ members offered up this little gem of advice: Mike's Whatever - Hatching Artemia the easy way.

I took this original idea and have modified it to suit my needs and situation. I've found I will need to modify it further to produce more BBS, but whether that's by adding additional containers or larger containers I've yet to settle on...

This is how I do it now...

 

I use a small glass cup. I think this was originally for holding tea candles

I cut to shape, so it would fit snuggly, a piece of black corflute

There is a slight gap at the bottom, but the sides are snug

I then taped it in place for an added precaution

 

As you can see, I setup four of them

 

They are arranged in a semi-circle in front of a light source

The recipe for the salt solution was from another fellow AAQ member. If you don't have your own, or cant find one that works for you on the net, then join AusAqua where I reveal the ingredients as they were told to me.

 

Obtain quality BBS cysts. They are not technically eggs, but some still sell them as such.

I get mine from Elite Betta who post within South Australia free.

In the second and third pictures above, you can see a small white scoop/spoon.

I got this from an instant BBS product - which was good, but expensive.

The spoon gives me one full measure of cysts which is placed in the dark half of the cup

- the side furthest from the light.

 

Within 24-36 hours, the BBS will hatch.

For harvesting, turn on the light and wait for a few minutes.

The BBS will swim under the barrier in an effort to get to the light

This leaves their discarded cyst casings on the dark side...

and clean BBS on the light side you can siphon up as required.

 

Here you can see the discarded casings

 

I found filling the cups two-thirds full and adding half a scoop of cysts allowed me to feed from one cup, for a small number of fry (<20), for three feeds. I now have two young spawns requiring BBS, and they're both larger in number than the first spawn (combined 100+). My fry get fed three times a day.

I now fill the cups almost to the top, and add a full scoop of cysts. I need to make a new cup each day. It is just enough. If one fails, then I'll have to resort to frozen for at least that feed, although, there is normally some older BBS in the previous cup as a backup.

The scoop I place in front of the cup I last placed new cysts into (seeded), so I know at a glance which cup holds the freshest BBS. If fed to fry within eight hours of hatching, you will gain the biggest benefit from BBS. At least one feed per day consists of new hatched BBS for my fry, but new BBS are hatching out constantly (after the first 24 hours) in each newly seeded cup, so the fry gain a benefit from each feed - just not as much in the second and third feed of the day as found in the first.

If you are having trouble finding a solution to hatch BBS, or simply hate the sound of the air pump bubbling away overnight - give this a shot.