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.

[AlanM]

Neat. Dry brine eggs, i assume? How do you handle shells and unhatched ones? Just clean it out from time to time?

[paul b]

The shells will be a problem so it should only work for a few days at a time.  To remove the shells would make it very complicated and I only need it to work for 5 days in a row.  I think the shells building up in that time should not be to much of a problem

[lnevo]

How about a door opens and you have a paddlewjeel activate to flush the shells into a shell collector (water bottle with screen filter on bottom to catch shells and drain water back to tank. Paddle finishes door closes.

[paul b]

Yes but as I said, it would make it more complicated than it needs to be as I only need it to work for 5 days so the shells could stay in it for that time.  I could build it.  I could also build it to make me breakfast in the morning, change the oil in my car and call a Supermodel for dinner, but all those things involve more movement and space that I don't think would fit in my tank.  And Supermodels don't usually answer the phone.

Edited July 24, 2014 by paul b

[lnevo]

Good point

[AlanM]

Supposedly pipefish also eat redbugs. Why not just trade a few sps with folks and drop em right in to feed the pipefish?

[gmerek2]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TOM-Hatch-n-Feeder-Brine-Shrimp-egg-hatchery-incubator-for-live-aquarium-food-/161042323306?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item257eded76a

Or pick up a couple hours at McDonald's to buy one of these. They are so easy you could even train Paris Hilton to run the hatchery.

[Squishie89]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TOM-Hatch-n-Feeder-Brine-Shrimp-egg-hatchery-incubator-for-live-aquarium-food-/161042323306?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item257eded76a

Or pick up a couple hours at McDonald's to buy one of these. They are so easy you could even train Paris Hilton to run the hatchery.

I wonder if you could use this with the usual auto feeder which could dump in the dry eggs every X hours/days.

 

My pipefish are lazy, but I may have to see what they would do with BBS.

[paul b]

My pipefish would laugh at red bugs or any other bugs.  They only eat pods and new born brine shrimp.  Maybe if I spray painted the shrimp red they would like them better, I really don't know.

That brine shrimp hatchery posted is not automatic and I already have one that I designed and built many years ago and use it every day.

That is one reason my mandarins are always spawning and my pipefish live long enough to go on Medicare (I won't let them go on Obamacare and they couldn't navigate the website anyway)

I figured out last night how to automatically flush the chamber of eggs and water but I don't think I need to add the extra equipment, timers and valves for the 5 days that I need it.  I will build that stuff just for fun as I think I have the equipment laying around but I won't install it right now.  I just like to design and build these things and my workshop is old and well equipped.

 

 

My workshop usually looks like this

 

 

But I recently re-designed it and added a sink to look like this

 

It now has more storage, the power tools are behind me out of the picture.

[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.

[gmerek2]

Everything look ok on the MRI machine?

[wangspeed]

How about using hatchable decapsulated eggs?

[paul b]

I need another shoulder operation.  The last rotator cuff one left part of my muscle detatched so he will repair that and I will be as good as new, almost.

I don't like decapsulated eggs.

[Crob5965]

cant wait to see this in action, I go away a lot myself, I get knot's in my stomach when someone else is watching my tank.

 

Good luck with the surgery

[paul b]

Thanks, I won't get it done until after boating season

[AlanM]

I have a jar of decapsulated eggs.  They're like a brown liquid goop in the bottle.  They are alleged to have higher hatch rates, but seem to spoil quickly and I don't really see higher hatch rates.  They also have to be kept in the fridge.

[paul b]

That is a few reasons I don't like them.  Regular shrimp eggs are fine and the hatch rate is great. I have been hatching them since Nixon was President.  He was after Lincoln

[lnevo]

Do the eggs need to be in suspension and do the shells hatch or float or both after hatching?

 

I always liked your two chamber approach vs the upside down soda bottle designs that you see everywhere.

 

I'd like to easily and efficiently hatch some brine shrimp for my mandarin and am definitely following. I think this is easily doable

[paul b]

The eggs float and sink after they hatch.  They are all over the place.  The auto thing I am working on now is kind of complicated but it is a prototype that I will need to use soon.  After that I will try to simplify it a lot.

You don't need an automatic hatchery for a mandarin.  But you should hatch shrimp every day to keep them healthy and spawning.

[paul b]

The project prototype is coming along.  I need to re-design the valve as it is un-predictable.  But it works as I tried it.  I will build a much better looking model if I get a chance some day.  Right now I just need it to work for my pipefish for a few days.

 

[Rob A]

How does the cough syrup and instant potatoes fit in?

[paul b]

The instant potatoes are there to feed my worms, that "cough syrup" is Sleep eese which I use to sleep because if I didn't take it, I would be up all night inventing.

The whiteworms are under that black towel in the corner of the workbench.  And the blackworms are in that horizontal white thing under the window

Edited July 27, 2014 by paul b

[Tracy G]

The instant potatoes are there to feed my worms, that "cough syrup" is Sleep eese which I use to sleep because if I didn't take it, I would be up all night inventing.

The whiteworms are under that black towel in the corner of the workbench. And the blackworms are in that horizontal white thing under the window

How do you use the instant potatoes with the white worms? You put it in dry?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[paul b]

Yes dry, then I spray water on them