Ghost shrimp eggs?

[stellablu]

I have about twelve ghost shrimp hanging out in one of my tanks in case my GSP ever wants a snack.

One of these shrimp has what seems to be eggs underneath its body. How long do shrimp eggs take to hatch? Should I put it in a breeder tank so the young aren't eaten by my crayfish or puffer?

 

[OrionGirl]

You can, but be prepared to make some serious effort to raise them. The hatchlings are free-floating larvae initially, and often get caught in pumps and power heads--an air driven sponge filtration system is best. You'll also need a lot of green water to feed these drifters--and I suspect they'd do better in brackish than fresh.

 

[stellablu]

I meant breeder box, not tank...sorry. That should help with drifting into filter, etc, right?

The shrimp are actually in my brackish puffer tank, so maybe that'll help. I posted under freshwater because I had no idea where to post ghost shrimp questions heh

Green water as in fresh or plenty of algae? Sorry if that's a dumb question.

 

[OrionGirl]

Green water is water with lots of free-floating algae in it--the larvae will eat plankton and free-floating tidbits from the water column. Take a large jar, fill it with water from your tank, and sit it in a windowsill, incovered--in a day or 3, it will be green with food. They can't be put in a breeder box--you won't be able to see the larvae for quite some time. You can move the female into the box, but if there's water flow through there, they'll drift out.

 

[Oddball~]

Theres a story about breeding... This one aquaria owner had a 33-gallon RubberMaid tub and had some bushy plants and 10 ghost shrimp, a coupla snails, no fish. it had a heater and a air pump connected to a four-way connection, which had disposable filters at the ends, so he had 4 small filters. It also had a weak heater i think, i forget. 1 Month later, SURPRISE! 100s of little ghost shrimp were swarming his tub. This is a true story and has some really true elements in it you need for breeding.

There should be no light source from any of the sides, only the top, when you have babies...this is not necessary, but you get a lower mortality rate. This was helped since it was just a plastic tub and wasn't clear.

The snails. Baby ghost shrimp feast on tiny tiny tiny organisms, green water, and if possible, small snails. Sounds odd, but true.

The plants allowed his shrimp to hide from the adults which lurk to eat their own young. This also allowed higher amounts of LIVING shrimp.

Now, i'm not saying to run to Wal-Mart and do this, I'm just saying some elemts you'll need