Written below is how it is done;
During the course of my experience keeping inverts, there was a time when i used to keep dwarf crayfish and when the female used to get berried I would transfer the female to a seperate tank and during this process she used to drop some eggs. In one such situation i decided to salvage the dropped eggs and try to hatch them artificially. I have often come across threads where hobbyists have lost shrimps that were berried and wanted to salvage the eggs and try to hatch them artificially. So i decided to share the contraption that i had come up with, though i dont have it with me anymore, i have shown it in the form of a diagram. I was able to successfully hatch 50% of the eggs that i had salvaged using this contraption.
Things You Need to Make This:
1. 2 Ltr Empty Plastic Pet Bottle (This has to be very clean)
2. Plastic Airline Tubing Connector
3. Airline Tubing
4. Airstone
5. Aerator
6. A Fine Mesh
How To Make the Contraption
The Diagram of the final contraption is below and is pretty self explanatory, So refer the diagram and go through the steps for easy understanding.
Step 1: Take the pet bottle, clean it very well and cut the bottle right in the middle. The top portion will be your hatcher and the bottom portion will work as a stand.
Step 2: Make a hole in the cap of the bottle such that the plastic airline connector fits snugly without any leaks or gaps. Also make a hole in the side of the bottom portion of the bottle and run an airline tubing through it.
Step 3: Place the top portion of the bottle that you have cut off in an inverted fashion into the bottom portion and connect the airline tubing and airstone as shown in the diagram.
Step 4: Take a fine mesh and place it at the open end of the contraption such that it is in a "U" shaped sack form as shown in the diagram. The mesh can be secured around the bottle using a rubber band.
Step 5: Fill the inverted portion of the bottle using water from the tank to a level such that it fills the mesh as well.
Step 6: Place the eggs that you have salvaged in the mesh. Run the aerator, you may need to control the output of the air bubbles such that the air bubbles rising up gently disturbs the mesh and hence the eggs in the mesh. This will achieve pretty much the same result of the female fanning the eggs.
In cases where you would need the water temp in the contraption to be low and your room temp is high , the top portion can be placed in the tank itself on which you have a chiller or cooling fan so that the temp of the water in the contraption will be the same as the tank. You can use a clip to secure the top portion of the contraption to the glass of the aquarium.
With that you are done, and now you have to wait. Keep a watch on the eggs everyday, If you see any eggs infected with fungus, remove those eggs immediately. Ideally you should see the eggs showing changes as they mature. I have also noticed that all eggs sometimes dont hatch at the same time, so as and when the shrimplets arrive, transfer them to a holding container or a seperate tank based on what you want to do.
Conclusion: Please remember , this is not a fool proof method to Artifical Egg Hatching and does not gaurantee that the eggs will hatch for sure. There may be a possibility that you may loose all the eggs due to various reasons like fungal infection for example. This method just gives you an opportunity to save some of the offspring. I hope this helps people on this forum.
Thanks.
[Kevyn]
