Can anyone please tell me how long a ghost shrimp will carry her eggs? Also, can you point me to a page about breeding them?
Breeding shrimp
- Thread starter MollyBreeder
- Start date
They carry them for about two weeks.
Isolate the female in a tank of its own. The juvenile shrimp are miniature versions of the adult form. They float around in the water column, head down, and tend to be a couple millimeters long at birth.
I used a 3gal Eclipse w/ Java moss and a pinch of iodized salt added for the iodine. I put a large sponge prefilter over the filter inlet, and covered this w/ pantyhose. The baby shrimp could march along the surface of the filter with no risk of being pulled in.
Remove the mother shrimp shortly after she drops the babies.
Feeding: I used finely powderized fish food pellets (any brand will do), breaking up the pellets between the bottom of a spoon and a plate. I kept at it until I got dust. I'd turn off the filter and drop in some "food dust" a couple times each day.
These guys grow painfully slowly. If you do not have a dedicated tank for this, virtually any fish (except Otos) will eat these little guys.
v/r, N-A
Isolate the female in a tank of its own. The juvenile shrimp are miniature versions of the adult form. They float around in the water column, head down, and tend to be a couple millimeters long at birth.
I used a 3gal Eclipse w/ Java moss and a pinch of iodized salt added for the iodine. I put a large sponge prefilter over the filter inlet, and covered this w/ pantyhose. The baby shrimp could march along the surface of the filter with no risk of being pulled in.
Remove the mother shrimp shortly after she drops the babies.
Feeding: I used finely powderized fish food pellets (any brand will do), breaking up the pellets between the bottom of a spoon and a plate. I kept at it until I got dust. I'd turn off the filter and drop in some "food dust" a couple times each day.
These guys grow painfully slowly. If you do not have a dedicated tank for this, virtually any fish (except Otos) will eat these little guys.
v/r, N-A
Actually, it depends on the species of shrimp. "Ghost shrimp" is a generic trade name for at least several different species, always wild-caught in large numbers. The species that produce miniature adults are fine with fresh water, but the other species that produce larvae require brackish water for them to survive, then need to be gradually acclimated to fresh water when they develop into miniature adults.
Pretty much all of them will eat their own young if they aren't separated after hatching.
Pretty much all of them will eat their own young if they aren't separated after hatching.
Just talking about the common freshwater grass shrimp that is the primary staple of most LFS's. If yours are like the ones that many on this forum have posted about, they will do as noted above.
The ones toddnbecka mention produce a planktonic stage that is beyond the means of the average aquarist to keep alive due to their feeding requirements. If the shrimp has an egg mass that she keeps oxygenated with her swimmerettes, and the eggs are not easily defined with the bare eye, or even a magnifying glass, you do not have the generic ghost shrimp we are familiar with. Usually you won't see these in an LFS, as they are not as long-lived in the LFS's pure FW environment.
If the eggs are easily defined (i.e., dark olive spheres), well there are tons of people here at AC who've given it a try...and it's a lot of work to get only 15 to 30 babies that take months to grow, even with generous feedings. A pinch of Morton's iodized salt with each water change makes a world of difference in mortality. I can't remember which AC member told me this, but man, did it work.
Want great-looking hardy shrimp? I believe beviking is still in the RCS (red cherry shrimp) business. See him the classifieds section.
v/r, N-A
The ones toddnbecka mention produce a planktonic stage that is beyond the means of the average aquarist to keep alive due to their feeding requirements. If the shrimp has an egg mass that she keeps oxygenated with her swimmerettes, and the eggs are not easily defined with the bare eye, or even a magnifying glass, you do not have the generic ghost shrimp we are familiar with. Usually you won't see these in an LFS, as they are not as long-lived in the LFS's pure FW environment.
If the eggs are easily defined (i.e., dark olive spheres), well there are tons of people here at AC who've given it a try...and it's a lot of work to get only 15 to 30 babies that take months to grow, even with generous feedings. A pinch of Morton's iodized salt with each water change makes a world of difference in mortality. I can't remember which AC member told me this, but man, did it work.
Want great-looking hardy shrimp? I believe beviking is still in the RCS (red cherry shrimp) business. See him the classifieds section.
v/r, N-A