u/i_need_angst

💖 Ankha, Daisy, Tiansheng, Genji, Punchy, Bud, Marlo, Kitty 💖

He talks like Muffy though 😅 picked up "nightshade" from her.

There's more of them than before and they are swimming more energetically than the last ones. I should've bought a refractometer from the beginning! They are not even fully at day 3, since I started them in the evening. Oh and live phytoplankton also helps. Keep your fingers crossed for my colony please. Thank you for the help!

Now armed with a refractometer I attempt to raise brine shrimp for the third time.

Eggs were added yesterday and it's been a little over 24 hours since then. They look like little bugs in this shot! I don't know why they decided to cram in that corner, since that's not where the light source was (at least, I think?) But I hope they will grow to be adults and thrive 💛

Thanks for all the help, I hope I can keep on showing my journey and that it will be a happier one from now on.

I plan to go for 1.025 salinity (measured with a rhectometer). It's so green because of live phytoplankton.

Would that mean they have plenty of live food since the beginning?

Should I skip feeding them Aqua Dragons Food from a packet?

I was almost ready to throw the water out and wait until I got the equipment to measure salinity shipped (I finally ordered it) before trying again, sure that all of them are dead. But I stirred the water (I turned the air pump off some time ago) and there! You can't even know how happy it made me see that there was still something alive (other than algae ofc)!

I have one open plot and would love one of these fellas :)

Would this hydrometer be okay for testing the salinity? I didn't have anything to test it before, and after two (or three, depending on how you're counting) failed attempts I want to minimize the chance of them not making it again. Rectimeters are quite expensive unfortunately. And the cheaper ones I looked at had bad reviews. Does anyone use this and does it help with keeping brine shrimp?

She's a good gal looking for a good home :)

My journey with brine shrimp began a couple of months ago, with binging videos about their care. I gave it a lot of thought about whether I could keep them in good condition and finally bought my first ever tank - 3 liter glass cube. I also bought a USB heater and a small air-pump (then once I received advice, I also bought valves for the air pump).

You can find my journey with trying to keep Aqua Dragons, but long story short, none of them made it to adulthood. After a break I tried again, this time without any aquatic sand and using live algae that I ordered to feed them. The eggs also weren't brand aqua dragons, but eggs to hatch for live food. Still, quite a lot passed away quickly, and I thought I must have starved them because being too afraid to cause a temperature shock, I fed them with a pipette. I added some eggs, and this time, I was more willing to pour the phytoplankton-water into the tank. Once again - a few days it's going fine, then there's less and less, and as of today, I could only find one survivor.

I kind of feel like a monster. I told myself at the second attempt that this should be a better date for them, since they were supposed to be hatched as food, but ehh, is it really much better to be slowly dying in a supposedly friendly environment? Sorry for the long post.

Here are some answers for the questions that I'm expecting:

-I did rinse the sand thoroughly on the first attempt and dried it before starting the tank

-I did wash the aquarium decoration before - no soap. I was hoping it would look nice and be a place for the algae to grow on

-I got the salinity of 30 ppt first by mixing Instant Ocean with spring water (first attempt), then by mixing distilled water with Instant Ocean. I did clean the tank thoroughly but without soap before the second attempt.

-I e kept them on the temperature of 26°C

-I don't have a salinometer. I probably should, it's just that the ones I've seen were really expensive, and I did start with 30 ppt (measured Instant Ocean) which should be safe even if it lowered or got higher overtime (ofc not too much. But from Picocosmos I understood that artemia can survive in quite a wide range of salinity)

-I didn't fish out the dead bodies, I was afraid of sucking up alive sea monkeys/ not recognizing properly. I only did it yesterday. I was also hoping that a big water volume would help with the chemistry spikes from ammonia

I really wish there was some sure way of keeping them alive. I'm genuinely so tired. It may sound silly but it really depresses me

Let me know if you want her, we can send her home to another island tomorrow :) sorry for a bad pic