Baby Ghost Shrimp

[Guba]

Well today my GS aren't in berry anymore. But I didn't see anything floating around in the water. How small are the larva when they hatch?

[badflash]

Very tiny. Here is a shot of one of mine:

That little up-side-down seahorse is it. They are nearly transparent and only about 1mm.
This is one a month old:

[Guba]

1 mm, there is nothing that big floating in the water. Do you feed them "green water" when they're that small? Or do they scrounge the "live rock/aquascape"? those are some good pictures for something that small. Has anyone experimented using hard boiled egg yolk to feed larva?

[Neonshrimp]

Has anyone experimented using hard boiled egg yolk to feed larva?

it's very messy, I do not recomend it

[badflash]

No, don't feed them that!
Use Golden Pearls, check aquabid. 500 micron is good if you don't have loads of copepods.

[apistomaster]

Hi All,
It's been awhile since I've dropped in.
I place four berried females in an 6 X 8 inch open mesh net suspended in a pre-established rearing tank. I remove each female upon her eggs hatching. The larvae drop through the mesh into the rearing tank. The larvae accept a variety of foods but I use FD Cyclop-Eeze and newly hatched brine shrimp in two light feedings per day. I usually notice the at 10 to 14 day. I have obtained around 200 young shrimp using this method and the four females. I start them in a ten gallon tank that is well planted and has been set up at least three months. This describes the tank I suspend the breeders in.

[Guba]

[Use Golden Pearls, check aquabid. 500 micron is good if you don't have loads of copepods./quote]
Thanks Badflash! I've never heard of golden pearls, but I'll look it up.

. The larvae accept a variety of foods but I use FD Cyclop-Eeze and newly hatched brine shrimp in two light feedings per day.

FD Cyclop- Eeze? Does FD mean that it's freeze dried? This is another product that I don't know about.

[apistomaster]

Freeze Dried Cyclop-Eeze is a small Arctic lake zooplankton that is sold by all mail order aquarium supplies companies and many well stocked fish shops. The smallest sealed can size is 30 g and sells for about $8.50. One can will last a long time if you are just feeding shrimp.
It is a good food for fish fry, juvenile and adult shrimp.
All the artificial plankton foods suggested so far are also very good.

The most difficult aspect about raising ghost shrimp is having faith in the first week or two that you do have a lot of nearly invisible larvae present and to continue to feed the apparently empty tank. They are after all, Ghost Shrimp.
Not all four females will release their larvae at the same time so there will be a range of ages that may vary by a week.
I try to take advantage of the fact that shrimp usually molt and spawn shortly after a large water change so the difference in the ages will be minimized.
The principle I suggested for obtaining good numbers of larvae is similar to placing live bearers in a breeding trap.
I think the adult females will eat many larvae if they are not kept away from them.
The common Ghost Shrimp is one of my favorite shrimp. They are very bold and will get right in and compete well with fish at feeding time and seem to do well over a wide range of water conditions. Their low cost does not make them less interesting than the many rare and expensive species to me.

[Guba]

I thought that I read in another post that ghost shrimp won't eat their larva. Cherry shrimp and "red claw" macros don't seem to ( but they aren't larva). What's the real deal? Are ghost shrimp cannabalistic on larva? The next time I go to a pet store (a good one) I'll be on the lookout for freeze dried cyclop eeze and golden pearls. Thanks guys!

[Neonshrimp]

Some of the members who have raised baby ghost shrimp have reported the adults eating the babies and advise removing the adults after the hatching.

[badflash]

Ghost shrimp will eat their own 100% for sure.

[Guba]

Well today I found a food produced by a big name manufacturer and they called it Cyclopeeze and I bought it. It doesn't look like a freeze dried food, how do I know if it's the same thing?

[apistomaster]

Because only Argent labs sells it under their trade mark name, CyclopEeze. Zooplankton are minute so it appears as a red powder.

[mikedmatthews]

1 mm, there is nothing that big floating in the water. Do you feed them "green water" when they're that small? Or do they scrounge the "live rock/aquascape"? those are some good pictures for something that small. Has anyone experimented using hard boiled egg yolk to feed larva?

i've done that, sparingly but i'm not convinced it is any more useful to them than the powdered foods. i use it more for rainbows and danios. what i have in the fridge is some freeze dried stuff, but i'm about to run out and don't have a source for resupply so i'll be using the real thing from here out. seen in several places they don't need food for several days post hatch. not real sure how you would determine if that's accurate or not.

i tried two batched of larvea at about the same time. one on a lower shelf and one on an upper shelf. the difference being the lower shelf had minimal ambient lighting. i got ~30 from the low light tank and none from the one gettin normal room lighting. i've heard they'll die running into the glass, don't know how true that is either but lack of light sure seemed to help.

[Guba]

The most difficult aspect about raising ghost shrimp is having faith in the first week or two that you do have a lot of nearly invisible larvae present and to continue to feed the apparently empty tank. They are after all, Ghost Shrimp.

This is apparently true, as today I discovered 3 juveniles about 1/4" long. One of the things that I'm noticing about the adults is that they haven't seemed to molt yet. One of them has turned white and the others seem to be turning white too. Any idea whats going on?