Breeding Ghost Shrimp

[flyte00]

Hi all..
I have a cycled 10 gallon in which I'm trying to breed some ghost shrimp. (as treats for my oscar and.. for fun I guess.. I wanted to raise feeder guppies in the same tank but worried they would eat the shrimp young) I have small black gravel on the bottom,(makes it easier to see em!) just one moss ball (for now.. having trouble finding them atm) several logs/caves for hiding and a plastic plant floating over the top.(going to be getting a live plant for this soon) I have a small penguin biowheel filter working it but I want to make a sponge filter for that tank instead.
They get a wide variety of foods including algae wafers, tiny bits of raw fish, and flake food. I noticed several pregnant shrimps when I first purchased them. I added some infusoria I had been growing, so the babies would have something to eat.. I assumed the infusoria would also propagate from the moss ball. (I've added them several times. I'll also be adding daphnia when I get it growing good and microworms.)
After reading they might be brackish I added a measured amount of 'aquarium salt' to the tank. I didn't realize this meant marine salt../smack self.
I added about 30 adult shrimp and I've lost quite a few.. also none appear to be pregnant anymore but I don't see any babies on the surface or swimming or in the moss.
Does anyone here have experience with raising these guys? Should I be using brackish or fresh water? Does the feeding of live food encourage breeding, like with certain fish? Is there anything else I should be providing them?

Thanks and sorry this ran long

Sarah

 

[plah831]

you could try going to petshrimp.com. i believe ghost shrimp are 100% FW (I've bred a few myself accidentally), so that's why the salt addition killed them.

that site has a brief breeding conditions description under "Shrimp varieties" and then a discussion forum. you can do a search for "ghost shrimp breeding" or join and ask any questions yourself. i find the folks there, especially the adminstrator Mustafa to be very knowlegeable. He breeds many varieties of shrimp himself, and participates actively on the forum.

hope that helps!

 

[Lady G]

I do not know much about breeding them but they can be BW and FW, as I have them in both tanks and they are doing fine. They have all been living in both my BW and my FW for about a year now. I did read on breeding them at one time but I don't really remember what all it said now (sorry not much help) but I just wanted to let you know I have them in both tanks.

Good luck and if I find an article about it I'll post it for you.

Gin

Oh here I found this one right off, I'll look for more also:

http://www.centralpets.com/animals/fish/freshwater_inverts/fwi4997.html

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/shrimp2.htm#ghost

just google in "breeding ghost shrimp" I had alot of hits on that!

 

[plah831]

I do not know much about breeding them but they can be BW and FW, as I have them in both tanks and they are doing fine.

really? i used salt for an ich treatment and ALL my ghosties died

 

[Lady G]

But that was aquarium salt right? For BW you need marine salt completly different stuff. BTW sorry to hear you lost all your's they are so fun to watch, I got them really as feeders for my ropefish and then ended up liking the darn things...still ropefish food though : Same as my guppies (I know...I'm mean), anyway that is why I got some in my BW tank just to have some that didn't get eaten.