When working with live food, having the right tools makes all the difference. To feed your fish efficiently with freshly hatched nauplii, you need two essential items: an Artemia sieve and a delivery tool—either a syringe or a pipette.
Choosing Your Tool: Syringe vs. Pipette
Finding a pipette of a suitable size for aquarium use can be difficult. A highly effective and inexpensive alternative is a standard syringe (e.g., 20-50 ml) fitted with a piece of air tubing.
- Advantages of the syringe: The air tube allows for precision feeding directly at the substrate or inside dense plants where fry often hide.
- Disadvantages: A syringe typically requires two-handed operation, whereas a pipette can be used with one hand, which is convenient if you need to move tank lids simultaneously.
The Feeding Process
The workflow is straightforward: use the syringe or pipette to draw the Artemia salina nauplii from the hatchery. Deposit them into the sieve and rinse thoroughly with fresh water. Rinsing is crucial to prevent excess salt from entering small nursery tanks, which could otherwise negatively impact water quality.
After rinsing, you can either dip the sieve directly into the tank or use the syringe/pipette to draw up the concentrated nauplii (mixed with a bit of fresh water) for targeted feeding across multiple aquariums.
