mass breeding

whipachaw · Post by **whipachaw** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 3:44 pm

I have a 6' x 6' x 3' retired fiberglass planter mold that i have been useing to house my common snapper turtle. It has no circulation at all and the only plants are water hyacinth. It houses many wild mollies and Gambusia caught locally that breed and keep the mosquito's from breeding in mass. The turtle eats much larger food and doesnt bother the fish. It grows TONS of algae and the water turns green from time to time till other organics tint the water brown and i assume chokes out light to the algae bloom that is making the water green. The algae on the walls does fine and eventually there is long strands of it everywhere.

my idea....

Remove all the fish aside from a mollie or 3, they would all be males. Add about 10 to 50 cherry shrimp then pretty much leave it alone and let the shrimp do there thing. I know shrimp can breed in it because ive added local (southwest florida) grass shrimp and have seen there babies when ive cleaned the tank. Even with lots of fish present. The water is well water and is hard but im sure i could soften it if i needed to ( i am a pool guy after all...i have acid lol)

My question....

Think it will work? When i say there is TONS of algae, i mean it. Its florida. Its hot and sunny, and the more i feed that turtle, the more nitrates and other nutrients are available to feed the algae growth.

My goal....

Well ide love to see them more available, so I'de sell them to local fish stores (mainly for store credit) and have plenty to add to my plant tank as needed.

Thanks for any help. Love the site, it has been in my favs for a while but this is my first post.

Post by **Mustafa** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:54 pm

Of course you can give it a try. You do not need to soften the water either for Red Cherries. Can you post of a pic of this "fiberglass planter." I have no idea what it is and what its original purpose is. You plant trees in it? Other plants?

whipachaw · Post by **whipachaw** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:41 pm

It was a mold, to fabricate large fiberglass planters for plants in large buildings like malls and such. I have friends in the fiberglass trade and they had it sitting in the back. I put a divider in it and housed a alligator snapper along with my common snapper for some time. It is 3 feet deep but i only fill it about 2 feet or so. It is 6 feet long and 6 feet wide. I will get a few pics if i can and post them.

chlorophyll · Post by **chlorophyll** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:21 am

Sounds like fun. At that size, you could make a cage for the fish and contain them to a certain area, perhaps only to the water column. As fry get larger they would just need to be netted and put in the cage. I wonder if the shrimp would learn not to go in the area of a cage like that containing a bunch of fish.