Baby Ghost Shrimp

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:18 am

Hi everyone, this is my first post here. I currently have my first batch of baby ghost shrimp. They are still in the larval stage (they are three or four days old). I really hope that some of them survive. So far, quite a few of them seem to still be alive. I'm feeding green water/infusoria and a little bit of brine shrimp food(don't know if that's a good thing or not), anyway, my question is: My females have eggs quite frequently and I'd like to try to save as many babies as possible in the future. I thought about ordering a rotifer culture but then I discovered that "Golden Pearls" has a rotifer size and I was wondering if anyone had experience with these and would it be an acceptable alternative? Also, what about freeze-dried rotifers? I don't mind culturing live food (although my hubby's not fond of the various "science projects" I have around the house) but I hate for them to crash or something, and it would be convenient to have a more shelf-stable alternative. Anybody? Thanks.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 12:28 pm

No experience with the pearls yet. I have them but haven't used them. Just live food. If yours are 4 days old you are about to get little shrimp soon!

Good luck & keep us posted.

Welcome to the group!

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:01 pm

Well, I figured that I'd post an update. I had one baby survive. I guess that's not too bad since I was so ill prepared, however, I have another female full of eggs so we will have another go at it. My baby shrimp is the cutest thing. He is so tiny.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 7:05 am

Next time give them lots of floating plants and be sure there are no fish that could eat them. Be sure they can't get sucked into the filter.

I've been using the pearls on my amano fry and it seems to be working well. That may be a good alternative to live food.

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 9:06 am

I have the shrimp in a 5 1/2g (no fish) with a sponge filter and java moss, so I have all of that covered. I think that I only had one survive because of the food issue. I ordered some golden pearls and freeze-dried rotifers so we will see if that helps.

zapisto · Post by **zapisto** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 3:59 pm

badflash wrote: I've been using the pearls on my amano fry and it seems to be working well. That may be a good alternative to live food.

i use golden pearl with my ghost and found it work well also.
badflash what sort of live food you use ?

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:30 pm

badflash what sort of live food you use ?

rotifers, moina and copepods.

shrimping · Post by **shrimping** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:40 am

what is golden pearls?

fishgeek · Post by **fishgeek** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:40 pm

how do you culture your rotifers etc

just the od sweetwater type techniques or do you purchase starter cultures and grow algae food for them?

andrew

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 2:16 pm

shrimping wrote:what is golden pearls?

Golden Pearls is a live food replacement. It comes in 5-1000 micron sizes and is supposed to float in the water column to simulate live food. I've ordered the rotifer size 1 (50-100microns) for my baby ghost shrimp but I haven't gotten them yet.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:19 pm

I have a 10 gallon aquarium that I grow them in. FW rotifers are REALLY easy to grow. I culture green water using FL lights and Pro-Culture and re-constituted R/O water. If you add about a quart of green water every day you'll have rotifers coming out your ears. I remove a quart of water loaded with rotifers, add the green water, then run the rotifers through a plankton screen, and add this to the shrimp. The reason for not adding the water directly to the tank is phosphates. I've had some issues with the algae not consuming all the phosphates. The rotifers are tolerant to phosphates, but the shrimp are not.

I suggest buying a live start as this will get you a huge culture in under as week. Resting rotifer eggs take several weeks to get up & running and cost about the same.

zapisto · Post by **zapisto** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:56 pm

badflash wrote: I culture green water using FL lights and Pro-Culture and re-constituted R/O water.

very interesting
badflash can you explain more on the green water ?
my problem was this green water ....

what is FL lights ?
what is Pro-Culture ?
and please define better re-constituted R/O water ?

thanks

zapisto · Post by **zapisto** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:18 pm

some other thing

i rehydrate the pearl before use them

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:17 pm

FL lights are Flourescent Lights. I use daylight bulbs.
Pro-Cuture is a commercial product used to grow algae. You can google it. I use 1/2 ml per gallon of R/O water with 1/2 tsp of R/O right.

I got an algae disk of Nanochloropsus from Florida Aqua Farms to start. I've kept the culture going since last summer with no problems. I'm using 1 gallon wine jugs as a culture vessle. I had to do some serious drinking to get enough jugs.

Goes with being a shimpaholic.

I use an open air line with a 3/8" clear plastic tube to keep the culture churning at all times. I shake the culture every third day and harvest 1/2 after a week. I add new water and repeat.

Currently my saltwater tank doesn't need any new algae. It grows faster than the fry or brine shrimp comsume it. When I had rotifers I could not keep up. It looks like the rotifers and brine shrimp are counter productive. I have a few female brine shrimp in with them to prove the water quality. No males, so there are no baby brine shrimp.

zapisto · Post by **zapisto** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 9:38 am

thanks for the cool answer

are you talking of : Kent Pro-Culture ?
which part A or B or the 2 ?

thanks