yveterinarian
Super Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2012
- Location
- Innerkip, Ontario
Over the last few weeks I have been asked questions about de-capsulating and hatching Brine Shrimp so I thought I’d post a sticky in the library to explain my methods. I sifted through a lot of information and did a lot of “trial and error” batches before I came up with something that works well for me.
First of all, why do we even need to de-capsulate in the first place?
1) From everything I have been told and have read, brine shrimp cysts carry a lot of bacteria including Vibrio and other potentially pathogenic bacteria. They also harbour Hydroids which can potentially kill the fry (fish or seahorse alike) by stinging them.
2) The shells of the brine shrimp cannot be digested by most fry and can potentially cause intestinal blockage if ingested.
3) If de-capsulated, the brine shrimp nauplii have more nutrition when they hatch as they don’t have to use as much energy when hatching.
For all of the above reasons de-capsulation seemed to be a good idea to me. There are commercial preparations of de-capsulated brine shrimp cysts but many of them are Non-hatching so if you decide to buy them you must make sure they are the hatching kind if you wish to hatch out your own brine shrimp.
In order to de-capsulate I use the following supplies:
- Brine Shrimp cysts (always store in the freezer to preserve freshness)
- household bleach without additives (I use Chlorox or Javex 12 as the no-name brands are not as concentrated.)
- A chlorine neutralizer such as “Prime”
- A fine mesh net (150 or 250 mesh)
- Tap water
- Container to soak the cysts in
- Timer or watch
First of all I soak the cysts in regular tap water. I like to do enough for one week for myself so I use 14 tsp of brine shrimp cysts and add 1 cup of lukewarm water. If your water has chlorine in it you must de-chlorinate it first. Everything I have read says to soak them for one hour with an open-ended airline going to keep them mixed but I forgot them one day and went to work. When I came home I continued with the de-capsulation process and ended up with the best hatching ones so far. Because of this I always soak them for about 8 hours before I add the bleach. I usually don’t use an airline, I usually just stir them every now and then.
After they have re-hydrated, add bleach to the brine cyst mixture. I use a ratio of 2 parts water and 1 part bleach so for my example I use 1 cup water and 1/2 cup bleach. Use an open-ended airline to vigorously bubble or stir continuously until you start to see a color change. The cysts will change from dark brown to greyish to an orange/brown color. This can take anywhere from 3-9 minutes depending on the concentration of bleach. Using Javex 12 it usually takes me about 5 minutes.
Once the desired color has been reached pour the mixture into your fine mesh net and rinse well with tap water. Fill a small container with water and add some “Prime” or equivalent to it. Place the net into it with the brine shrimp cysts and swish it around a bit to neutralize any chlorine left on the cysts.
Store your de-capsulated cysts in a container in the fridge in a hypersaline solution. They can be stored up to 8 weeks safely but I usually only do one week at a time.
Newly hydrated cysts
During the De-capsulation process
Decapsulated cysts. You can clearly see the difference in color from the first picture.
Hatching:
Supplies Needed:
- Brine shrimp cysts
- Hatchery
- Salt water
- Open-ended airline
- Light
- Heater (optional)
For hatching Brine shrimp I usually use water that measures 1.019 ppt salinity. I made my own hatcheries using clear 2 litre pop bottles. I cut the bottom third off the bottle, screwed the cap on tightly and turned the top over and placed into the bottom. One bottle makes one hatchery. Some people like to use two clear pop bottles per hatchery. To make these ones you need to cut the bottom 1/3 off of one and the top 1/3 off of the other, screw the cap on tightly, turn it upside down and push it firmly into the other. These ones are a little more stable than ones made out of one pop bottle but I have never had one fall over.
Place the amount of cysts you wish to hatch into your hatchery and add your salt water. Put an open-ended airline into it and bubble the cysts to keep them suspended in the water. Place under the light and wait 24 hours. I usually use a heater because I find more hatch out early. If not using heat it takes a bit longer to hatch them. (I only use a heater in the first hatching vessel)
It takes 18-24 hours for Artemia to hatch. The hatching process releases metabolites into the water and is a perfect breeding ground for many bacteria types therefore, after 24 hours I take down the hatching vessel and rinse all the cysts and Artemia for several minutes under tap water, sterilize the cone and restart the hatch. This reduces the amount of metabolites in the container and gives a clean environment again.
I do this with each hatchery every day so I have a few made up that are not in use that have been sterilized to make my process quicker every day.
If you wish to enrich the Artemia you must wait until they are 8-12 hours old because newly hatched Artemia cannot eat. I enrich mine twice for 24 hours each to get the most nutrition into them that I can. To enrich I use Dan’s Feed from Seahorsesource.com but many use other products such as Selco or Algamac.
Therefore, I always have several hatcheries going at once with each hatchery being 24 hours older than the other. Each hatchery must be rinsed and sterilized daily to reduce the bacteria that grows every day. In the above picture the bottle on the far left is for fresh cysts just started. The next bottle contains the newly hatched artemia. Bottle 3 contains Artemia that are 24 hours old and is the first bottle I enrich. Bottle 4 contains Artemia that are 48 hours old and is for my second enrichment stage.
I hope this helps simplify things a little for anyone who wishes to try hatching their own brine shrimp for food. I, myself do not grow them out any further than 4-5 days so cannot discuss further grow out of Artemia.
References:
Aquaculture, 12 (1977) 311—315 311
© Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam — Printed in The Netherlands
DECAPSULATION OF ARTEMIA CYSTS: A SIMPLE TECHNIQUE FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE USE OF BRINE SHRIMP IN AQUACULTURE
Dan Underwood – SeahorseSource.com
The Complete Guide to Artemia (Brine Shrimp) By Mike Gilbert and Bethany Watson
Seahorse.Org
First of all, why do we even need to de-capsulate in the first place?
1) From everything I have been told and have read, brine shrimp cysts carry a lot of bacteria including Vibrio and other potentially pathogenic bacteria. They also harbour Hydroids which can potentially kill the fry (fish or seahorse alike) by stinging them.

2) The shells of the brine shrimp cannot be digested by most fry and can potentially cause intestinal blockage if ingested.
3) If de-capsulated, the brine shrimp nauplii have more nutrition when they hatch as they don’t have to use as much energy when hatching.
For all of the above reasons de-capsulation seemed to be a good idea to me. There are commercial preparations of de-capsulated brine shrimp cysts but many of them are Non-hatching so if you decide to buy them you must make sure they are the hatching kind if you wish to hatch out your own brine shrimp.
In order to de-capsulate I use the following supplies:
- Brine Shrimp cysts (always store in the freezer to preserve freshness)
- household bleach without additives (I use Chlorox or Javex 12 as the no-name brands are not as concentrated.)
- A chlorine neutralizer such as “Prime”
- A fine mesh net (150 or 250 mesh)
- Tap water
- Container to soak the cysts in
- Timer or watch
First of all I soak the cysts in regular tap water. I like to do enough for one week for myself so I use 14 tsp of brine shrimp cysts and add 1 cup of lukewarm water. If your water has chlorine in it you must de-chlorinate it first. Everything I have read says to soak them for one hour with an open-ended airline going to keep them mixed but I forgot them one day and went to work. When I came home I continued with the de-capsulation process and ended up with the best hatching ones so far. Because of this I always soak them for about 8 hours before I add the bleach. I usually don’t use an airline, I usually just stir them every now and then.
After they have re-hydrated, add bleach to the brine cyst mixture. I use a ratio of 2 parts water and 1 part bleach so for my example I use 1 cup water and 1/2 cup bleach. Use an open-ended airline to vigorously bubble or stir continuously until you start to see a color change. The cysts will change from dark brown to greyish to an orange/brown color. This can take anywhere from 3-9 minutes depending on the concentration of bleach. Using Javex 12 it usually takes me about 5 minutes.
Once the desired color has been reached pour the mixture into your fine mesh net and rinse well with tap water. Fill a small container with water and add some “Prime” or equivalent to it. Place the net into it with the brine shrimp cysts and swish it around a bit to neutralize any chlorine left on the cysts.
Store your de-capsulated cysts in a container in the fridge in a hypersaline solution. They can be stored up to 8 weeks safely but I usually only do one week at a time.

Newly hydrated cysts

During the De-capsulation process

Decapsulated cysts. You can clearly see the difference in color from the first picture.
Hatching:
Supplies Needed:
- Brine shrimp cysts
- Hatchery
- Salt water
- Open-ended airline
- Light
- Heater (optional)
For hatching Brine shrimp I usually use water that measures 1.019 ppt salinity. I made my own hatcheries using clear 2 litre pop bottles. I cut the bottom third off the bottle, screwed the cap on tightly and turned the top over and placed into the bottom. One bottle makes one hatchery. Some people like to use two clear pop bottles per hatchery. To make these ones you need to cut the bottom 1/3 off of one and the top 1/3 off of the other, screw the cap on tightly, turn it upside down and push it firmly into the other. These ones are a little more stable than ones made out of one pop bottle but I have never had one fall over.

Place the amount of cysts you wish to hatch into your hatchery and add your salt water. Put an open-ended airline into it and bubble the cysts to keep them suspended in the water. Place under the light and wait 24 hours. I usually use a heater because I find more hatch out early. If not using heat it takes a bit longer to hatch them. (I only use a heater in the first hatching vessel)
It takes 18-24 hours for Artemia to hatch. The hatching process releases metabolites into the water and is a perfect breeding ground for many bacteria types therefore, after 24 hours I take down the hatching vessel and rinse all the cysts and Artemia for several minutes under tap water, sterilize the cone and restart the hatch. This reduces the amount of metabolites in the container and gives a clean environment again.
I do this with each hatchery every day so I have a few made up that are not in use that have been sterilized to make my process quicker every day.
If you wish to enrich the Artemia you must wait until they are 8-12 hours old because newly hatched Artemia cannot eat. I enrich mine twice for 24 hours each to get the most nutrition into them that I can. To enrich I use Dan’s Feed from Seahorsesource.com but many use other products such as Selco or Algamac.
Therefore, I always have several hatcheries going at once with each hatchery being 24 hours older than the other. Each hatchery must be rinsed and sterilized daily to reduce the bacteria that grows every day. In the above picture the bottle on the far left is for fresh cysts just started. The next bottle contains the newly hatched artemia. Bottle 3 contains Artemia that are 24 hours old and is the first bottle I enrich. Bottle 4 contains Artemia that are 48 hours old and is for my second enrichment stage.
I hope this helps simplify things a little for anyone who wishes to try hatching their own brine shrimp for food. I, myself do not grow them out any further than 4-5 days so cannot discuss further grow out of Artemia.
References:
Aquaculture, 12 (1977) 311—315 311
© Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam — Printed in The Netherlands
DECAPSULATION OF ARTEMIA CYSTS: A SIMPLE TECHNIQUE FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE USE OF BRINE SHRIMP IN AQUACULTURE
Dan Underwood – SeahorseSource.com
The Complete Guide to Artemia (Brine Shrimp) By Mike Gilbert and Bethany Watson
Seahorse.Org