Decapsulating brine shrimp eggs

[Sarah Bella]

http://www.killies.com/Decapsulating.htm

i didn't know you could decapsulate brine shrimp at home...  it looks so easy too. 

[BigDaddy]

I have done it.  It is easy to do.  And if you are feeding fry, its definately worth the extra minute or two it takes to decapsulate.

1)  No cysts to worry about

2)  Shrimp use less energy to hatch, thus having a higher nutritional value

I used the procedures on SFBB.com

[Sarah Bella]

This worked out AWESOME!!  The cysts cause Swim Bladder disorder in betta fry and trying to harvest the little guys without the shells was impossible at best.  I was picking them out one by one with a pipette.  I did this once and decided it was far too time consuming and frustrating... 

its definately worth the extra minute or two it takes to decapsulate.

my biggest mistake was using the coffee filter, took forever to drain.  im talking hours!!  by the time i figured out the Brine shrimp net would work MUCH better *go figure*  i was already done *D'oh*

Big Daddy, do you hatch you decapsulated eggs or just feed them to your fry as is??  Some websites say they hatch, some say they dont..  i guess the only way to know for sure is to try i guess..   

[BigDaddy]

When I did it.. they did hatch.

I feed both the hatched and the unhatched shrimp...

[Seanc]

how does something hatch from nothing? wouldent it be called something else?

[Underwater]

decapsulating only removes the outer shell, the egg itself is intact.

[Sarah Bella]

if you want to see how it works on a bigger scale, take a raw chicken egg and put it in a jar of vinegar.  after a week the shell has been totally dissolved and all thats left is the rubbery membrane.  You can bounce the egg, its way cool (but do it outside lol )...

thats kinda what its like decapsulating the brine shrimp eggs except you use bleach to dissolve the shell.