Food for larval shrimp?

[QCppg]

I have been breeding ghost shrimp, and would like a better food for the larva. Currently they feed on partially decayed fish food, which works but reeks! That and I'm just plain tired of seeing all sorts of mold in my shrimp box. I had read that liquified fry food works. Any recommendations?

(these are the American strain of ghost shrimp, the larva are approx. 1/2 mm long and do feed using their claws like the adults. They are NOT brackish water "Amano" shrimp)

 

[OrionGirl]

Infusoria should work, as would any small sized food. I wouldn't use the liquid fry foods--they can be hard to feed without overfeeding.

I wouldn't let the food rot, either, as this will reduce water quality. Putting in enough that they can scavenage around for it, then remove the excess before adding more.

RTR can probably offer more advice...

Amano shrimp are not brackish, they are freshwater.

 

[RTR]

I use the fines from the bottom of prepared foods (flakes, pellets, or wafers) - very elegant technique . I also make sure to include Hikari Crab Pellets in the mix. If the mix includes intact crab pellets or oversize bits from the food containers, I grind it in a small mortar and pestle, then store in clean, dry plastic film cans or recycled pill vials. Don't prepare large batches, fresher is better.

Overfeeding is the enemy of any fry rearing/feeding process. Tiny amounts are required. Vacuuming is very difficult in such tanks (you capture the fry). Fry tanks should not smell any more than any other tank, preferably less. You can partial by putting a very fine sponge over the siphon hose end and siphoning slowly.

The very fine stuff is suitable even for open-water swimmers such as Rudolph Red-nosed Shrimp (aka red-nosed red-tailed shrimp) - although largely nocturnal, they come out in numbers within seconds of adding the fine stuff to the tank, and harvest as it wets and drifts down in the water column.

Amano shrimp have some fry survival in "FW", but for numbers it seems to require at least some marine mix in the water. See Wilma Duncan's write-up:

http://www.uniquaria.com/articles/amano.html

HTH

 

[OrionGirl]

Interesting--didn't know the amanos needed brackish as fry. Good to know!

 

[RTR]

The "requirement" is not absolute. I have more Amanos in some tanks than I have records of putting there, but record failure is always a possibility. Quite a number of folks have reported offspring survival in FW, but data on water parameters is slim. I was replicating Wilma's work with some measured variants in salt level, but had problems back during power failure season - I lost no fish this year, but several batches of shrimp fry. Rather than restarting that process, I went for more varieties of shrimp (greedy), such as the red-nosed - my first free-swimming shrimp (small and cool). Somebody will polish the proceedure, whether me or someone else, but at least we have a basic technique.

 

[QCppg]

So I can just use crushed fish food? Good. I need to check but my shrimp box might be dead (then again baby ghost shrimp aren't almost invisible, they ARE invisable!) I have yet another gravid shrimp to add to the box (about 2 weeks until hatching occurs), and I need to buy some more ghosts to replace losses (one was killed by the filter, one was accidentally siphoned away and one was given to my dad), and when I buy ghost shrimp some are always gravid.

When siphoning from fry tanks I use air hose with a bubble stone on the submerged end. I am aware that you can't remove debris this way but you won't remove your fry either.

 

[RTR]

I would lean toward higher veggie levels rather than high protein, but for Ghosts I suspect it is not critical. For the algae grazer shrimp, I supect it is more important.