Peppermint shrimp fry

[Sregnar35]

Following Dave's advice a few months back I bought a second peppermint shrimp in hopes of them reproducing. Here's a pic of what I get every few weeks, the morning after they are gone!

http://www.aquaticphotos.com/data/media/16/shrimp_fry.jpg

[Guy W]

That is pretty cool, you have any plans of trying to raise them?

[mogurnda]

Very pretty. I bet there are some very happy planktivores in your tank.

[Sregnar35]

Nope, no real plans to raise them, I'm busy enough just keeping my current tank going, let alone talking the little lady into allowing our dining room to become an aqua nursery!

[Guy W]

How did you go about pairing them up? I'd like to try this with Blood Shrimp, which are my favorite shrimp type.

Any ideas to get me started?

[Sregnar35]

Dave may be the one to ask, I had one peppermint shrimp, and they started carrying eggs within 2 weeks. They are hermaphrodites, I don't know that blood shrimp are as well, but you can prob find out from liveaquaria.com or something. Sorry I couldn't be more help. As

[mogurnda]

Ooops. Missed this one. I haven't kept them, so I did a little hunting around in the journals and found some interesting things:

1. They form pair bonds, and one of the highest sources of mortality in captivity is breaking of the pair bond, which results on one shrimp killing the other. According to the Breeder's Registry, they are simultaneous hermaphrodites like other Lysmata shrimp.

2. Success in rearing the larvae is enhanced by providing microalgae within 2-3 hours of hatching. They used Rhinomonas reticulata, Skeletonema costata and Tetraselmis chuii, in case that makes any difference.

[Sregnar35]

Thanks Dave. Just to let you all know, last night around 10pm, my other shrimp was acting strange, swimming to the top corners of my tank, and actually swimming alot, instead of his typical smooth swagger across the bottom. Then like a little red rocket he zoomed through the center of the tank, did a little twist, and released all of his larvae in a huge poof! It was really incredible to see, especially with my moonlights as the only light source, turned into a moonlight snowstorm,very cool!

[mogurnda]

Wow! I thought they just kinda sat there and released them.

[Sregnar35]

Nope, I've seen them act strange at night, swimming to the corners of the tank and all, but I've never seen the release. He swooped down from the top front left corner towards dead center of th tank very fast, twisted upside down, released, and landed on the tank bottom, then quickly shot under his little cave to hang with his partner. After which my gramma woke up and had a feast.