I have some small Rasboras, probably less than a half inch, that I want to be sure they are getting enough food to grow on. I already chop up blood worms but I would like to do more. What I was thinking of doing was to make one of those soda bottle hatcheries for brine shrimp.

Here's my first question. It's been a long time since I've seen newly hatched brine shrimp. Would the newly hatched shrimp be big enough for the fish to eat and grow on.

Second question. I would like to keep the hatchery in the basement where it is probably in the lower 60's F. Does anyone have an idea how to warm up the water? I found a 7.5 watt heater on line but it has no temperature control and is designed for tanks of 2 to 5 gals.

DLH

Won't the light used be ample heat? I've never done it before, but if an incandescent bulb is used, seems like a lot of heat to me.

That's a thought. Seems I remember something about people doing that to keep their aquariums warm before there were heaters. I could try different watt bulbs and different distances to see what would work.

DLH

I used to have a Sea Monkey kit (brine shrimp) and they were just in room temp water... we live in a basement appt. and it's cold. It took them a few extra days to hatch, but I was getting 2nd generation with just room temp water and light from the window, so I'd think that using the light you're planning on would be fine.

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Thanks to both of you. I think I'm going to give it a try with just the heat from the bulb.

While researching on how to hatch brine shrimp I ran across one site where the guy claimed he did not use salt in the water and the shrimp hatched fine. Since I've got canning salt anyway I'm not going to try that. At least not for now.

DLH