FAIRY SHRIMP & MOINA HATCHING INSTRUCTIONS

KEEP WATER TEMPERATURE BETWEEN 75-80F DEGREES

BUILD YOUR HATCHERY

 

Items you’ll need:

  • 3/16″ Rigid Airline Tubing ( Length: 12″ )
  • Two Water Bottles

 

 

 

STEP 1

Cut bottles along the lines. You can repurpose the water inside the bottles to hatch your moina and fairy shrimp eggs. If using tap water, use water conditioner to remove chlorine. These are freshwater invertebrates. DO NOT USE AQUARIUM SALT!

STEP 2

Assemble hatchery

  • Place one bottle upside down inside the other. The bottom one will serve as the base. Fill your hatchery with 1/3 of spring water. The weight will help keep your hatchery from tilting over.
  • Connect one end of the flexible air tubing to the air pump and the other one to the rigid air tubing.
  • Place rigid air tubing inside your hatchery and turn on your air pump.
 

STEP 3

Prepare and hatch the eggs

 
  • Keep fairy shrimp / moina eggs warm. Put under sunlight under a light bulb for 3-4 hours or about two hours. Afterward, put the eggs into bottled spring or fresh water from your tank. Use dechlorinated water only, and soak for 8-24 hours to absorb enough water.
  • After 8-24 hours, oxygenate water using an air stone connected to an air pump (Open to low oxygen), turn on the lamp, and place it right on top of your hatchery – Do not turn the lamp off until the eggs have hatched.
  • It will take 1-2 days before the eggs hatch for fairy shrimp and about 3-10 for moina, but it may take up to 16 days if conditions are not optimal. After that, start feeding food two times a day, and you may feed dry yeast and/or spirulina one teaspoon at a time. Please don’t add more food to the water if you notice the water looks cloudy and is still uneaten.
  • Keep the water level steady by adding more spring water as the tank evaporates. After six to eight weeks, the fairy shrimp / moina will die off.
 

 

KEEPING EGGS THAT HAVE NOT HATCHED

  • After nine days, you can collect the eggs they have produced by suctioning the sediments off the bottom of the container (Eggs will look like tiny grains of brown sand)
  • Unhatched eggs must be soaked in a freshwater container for two weeks.
  • After two weeks, use the included filter to separate the eggs from the water. Then leave them in sunlight or air the eggs dry.
  • Keep eggs in a zip lock bag and store them in a cool, dry place. Eggs can be stored for one year (but the longer you keep them, the hatching rate decreases).
 
 

TIPS

  • If you run out of food, you can use established aquarium freshwater, about 5-10 teaspoons, to feed the fairy shrimp / moina.
  • The first hatch of fairy shrimp / moina is tiny, and they may not be visible.
  • If the eggs do not hatch or the hatching percentage is less, you must dry them and use the method “Keeping eggs that have not hatched” again (Please refer to above)
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