breading ghost shrimp

[ropefish dude]

i need help, i want to start feeding my fish ghost shrimp for live food ( i "accedentally" fed it to other fish before, and they got bigger quick!)
i was wondering wheter or not to just buy the shrimp for them, or get a couple and try to start a shrimp farm. is there any way i can breed them? if so how? or would it be easier to buy them (about $0.40 a piece)? i heard rope fish and clown loaches like them. any breeding info would help
:help:

[Pufferpoison]

to succesfully bread them, they need to be in brackish water, they hardly ever hatch eggs in freshwater. Brackish water is freshwater with marine salt added, just not as much as you would add for saltwater tanks. It's cheaper to just buy them, since they have a very short life span in the first place.

[geekrockgirl85]

actually, to succesfully bread them, you usually just need an egg or some milk, (the collagen acts as a binding agent... i watch a lot of alton brown.), your choice of breadcrumbs (progresso italian style has always been the favorite around here), and a little salt and pepper to taste.

1. peel and devein the shrimp. you can leave the tails on if you like.

2. dip the shrimp into the egg/milk mixture.

3. immediately coat the shrimp in the breadcrumbs by rolling them until properly covered.

if you would like instructions on how to cook them now that they are breaded, feel free to PM me.

breeding shrimp, however... no clue. sorry.

[Danny-O]

Bread them? I like breaded shrimp myself, with a little cocktail sauce and some lemon juice.

(Sorry, couldn't resist!):D

[Danny-O]

Rats, geekrockgirl85 beat me to the punchline! Nice work!

[daveedka]

to succesfully bread them, they need to be in brackish water, they hardly ever hatch eggs in freshwater. Brackish water is freshwater with marine salt added, just not as much as you would add for saltwater tanks. It's cheaper to just buy them, since they have a very short life span in the first place.

There are two types of ghost shrimp common in the hobby. one is Brackish the other is true Freshwater. I do not know exactly how to tell the difference, but I do know the ones sold here in columbus Ohio are true fresh. The true freshwater vairiety can be bred fairly easily, but depending on your experience level it may still be better to just buy them. The freshwater variety simply requires good water, adequate food and space, and significant amounts of hiding places for the fry. Java Mass and rocks are usually reccomended since the Java Moss houses Huge colonies of Micro Fauna for the baby shrimp to eat, and also provides great hiding places. My reccomendation would be to set up a tank for them, buy a dozen or two and while they are going through quarantine watch them for eggs. Any that have eggs hang on to and feed the rest out. See how goes the reproduction stuff.
Since you really should quarantine feeders of any kind, you would be out nothing by setting up the tank for them.

Dave

[Pufferpoison]

There are two types of ghost shrimp common in the hobby. one is Brackish the other is true Freshwater. I do not know exactly how to tell the difference, but I do know the ones sold here in columbus Ohio are true fresh. The true freshwater vairiety can be bred fairly easily, but depending on your experience level it may still be better to just buy them. The freshwater variety simply requires good water, adequate food and space, and significant amounts of hiding places for the fry. Java Mass and rocks are usually reccomended since the Java Moss houses Huge colonies of Micro Fauna for the baby shrimp to eat, and also provides great hiding places. My reccomendation would be to set up a tank for them, buy a dozen or two and while they are going through quarantine watch them for eggs. Any that have eggs hang on to and feed the rest out. See how goes the reproduction stuff.
Since you really should quarantine feeders of any kind, you would be out nothing by setting up the tank for them.

Dave

the freshwater ghost shrimp, is actually a brackish shrimp, from all my readings regarding them, the other is a saltwater shrimp. Not arguing with you but i think there's a lot of misinformation on these.

[ropefish dude]

thanx a lot pufferpoison and daveedka for the info, but a need a third opinion to know, for sure, if i can get away with fresh water, or if i have to set up a brackish. :confused:

[DirkW]

I've got what where sold to me as ghost shrimp, but once they started eating well, they developed some color. I've been trying to breed them just to see if I can. So far, no luck. When they are carrying eggs, I place them in a 1G container with plastic grass mats covered with a fine netting. I drop large flakes for the mother to eat before the eggs drop. Once the eggs drop, I drop in crushed flake and remove the mother. After a couple days, I removed all the cover for a cleaning, and could not find a single baby.

Am I going about this the right way? Next time I'll try some marine salt. Unfortunately, I believe all my females have dropped their eggs in the last two weeks, so I don't know how much longer it will take for more eggs.

[misopeenut]

theres no shrimp as ghost shrimp from my understanding.
most of the stores would sell any shrimp that can live in fresh water as ghost shrimp.
some of the eggs may hatch while other eggs die because some of them need the brackish water.

just buy about 2 dozen and see what happens. shrimps need fairly clean water and a lot of hiding place for the babies like mentioned above.

the ghost shrimps that i bought bred crazy. i bought 16 of them and in a month or so i think i had over 60.

[djblac]

breeding ghost shrimp...it's easy! I have ghost shrimp in ALL my tanks, and every tank from my 55g to both my 10g have reproducing shrimp. But it didn't happen with my first stocking of shrimp...ok here is what i've done.

Ok i've had the most success in my 10g QT tank. It only has one med. common pleco, about 11 guppies and their fry, and for the moment 15 tetras. Well there are also about 20 or so ghost shrimp. The shrimp range from size, either born yesturday small or 1 inch large. A new shrimp gets pregant about once a week, and it takes maybe two weeks or so for the eggs to drop. I've watched them drop their eggs and they do it randomly just anywhere, when it's time it's time. In about a week you may notice very very tiny new shrimp. I started out with 10 shrimp in my 10g QT tank and they are close to doubling in under 2 months...not bad imo :)

In my 55g i've added around 30 or so, and now maybe 10 are around, but they are HUGE (1inch or so) and get pregant about every other week. I have clown loachs and plecos so they have to tuff it out, but i always have tiny baby shrimp in my 55g also.

So...in short i'd say just about any tank that wouldn't have fish that would eat them in it would be just fine for ghost shrimp. They eat fish food (flakes) to algea thins, just about everything. They will even swim to the top of the tank to get food from you if you have them long enough to learn your feeding times....and they multiply with ease...all you need is a large starting batch and you can't go wrong.

[RTR]

http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/other/ghostshrimp.html

[graphicdesign_r]

Not a pro on this but anecdotally I just had ghost shrimp hatch in my completely FW tank and they're everywhere. Due to the inhabitants I don't expect many to survive, but I'm sure a few will...

[Cuvier]

the freshwater ghost shrimp, is actually a brackish shrimp, from all my readings regarding them, the other is a saltwater shrimp. Not arguing with you but i think there's a lot of misinformation on these.

Sorry, but that's not completely true. See the link RTR provided.