Baby ghost Feeding Questions

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:39 pm

I'm sure he would love to have something new to publish for shrimp as cool as these. I am also a newsletter editor. If you would like any help or guidance, feel free to PM me. Nothing speaks louder than success. If you see 6 babies, there are at least that many you haven't seen. If you got 12 post larvals out of ~ 30 eggs you have done VERY well.

Just because these are simple ghost shimp does not mean that this accomplishment should be dimished. We shimpers may be the only ones to save these species. Their habitat is dissapearing so fast than only crazies like us may be able to save them. Who else cares?

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 7:21 pm

Thanks, Badflash. If I do an article I will certainly pm you for help. My babies are frequently venturing out of moss and feeding off of the bottom of the tank. It is so hard to see them though. They are very tiny. I saw seven of them earlier so I'm very optimistic about their survival. With my first batch I think I only had one survive because I was only feeding infusoria and I'm not sure how loaded it was. I feed a pinch of GP's once a day and either freeze-dried rotifers or artemia food once a day. I do 20% waterchanges twice a day with water that has been treated with Prime and aged at least 24hrs. My water is moderately hard with a pH around 7.5, 7.6 and my temp is running 78 degrees F.
I have two pregnant females in the tank as well. They won't eat my little ones will they? I don't want to put them back in my bigger tank because then I won't be able to keep an eye on the new babies that are about to be born.

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 7:46 pm

I never counted how many eggs my female was carrying. Is around thirty or so normal? I moved my java moss earlier and I counted 13 shrimpettes.

Either I'm feeding them really well or else they really like all of those waterchanges. I took some pictures but they didn't turn out. My camera is really lousy. I guess I better get a better camera.

Post by **Mustafa** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 9:58 pm

shrimpbaby wrote:I observed six of them sitting on the bottom of the tank feeding so I guess that means that they are now out of their larval stage.

Not always. Very late stage larvae also tend to sit on the bottom, or on plants, walls, etc. Only if your shrimp look like miny shrimp and actually walk around (even "sitting larvae" can't walk really) are they postlarvae, i.e "out of" the larval stage.

Post by **Mustafa** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 10:04 pm

shrimpbaby wrote: I have two pregnant females in the tank as well. They won't eat my little ones will they?

They might actually eat them if they can catch them. If the eggs they are carrying are really late-stage, then the female usually does not bother chasing around potential food but concentrates fully ont the impending hatch. If you have no other possibility to accommodate the females, though, I would pack the grow-out tank with something like Najas for the babies to hide and hope for the best.

Post by **Mustafa** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 10:07 pm

shrimpbaby wrote:I never counted how many eggs my female was carrying. Is around thirty or so normal?

Thirty is normal, although they can have up to about 80 eggs (very large well-fed females).

I moved my java moss earlier and I counted 13 shrimpettes. Either I'm feeding them really well or else they really like all of those waterchanges.

The water changes are definitely a huge factor. Larvae and young shrimp are especially sensitive to dissolved organics. Without water changes these accumulate in your tank. A successful breeder does not skimp on water changes.

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 7:35 pm

I've been watching the pregnant moms and they don't seem to bother the babies even though they(the moms) seem to still be very active. I know that they are going to have their babies any day now and I will remove them as soon as they do. The babies that I have are still doing well. They frequently venture out of the moss and walk up and down the sides of the tank and sit on the bottom.
I've been leaving the tank light on 24hrs. I don't know if that's good or not but I thought that it might encourage the babies to eat more and they seem to be eating a lot.

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 7:39 pm

Mustafa wrote: The water changes are definitely a huge factor. Larvae and young shrimp are especially sensitive to dissolved organics. Without water changes these accumulate in your tank. A successful breeder does not skimp on water changes.

I've never been one to skimp on waterchanges with my tanks. Even with a small bioload I usually try to do 50% wc's every week, but with these larvae I have been doing 20% wc's twice a day. That's certainly more than I would do on my other tanks.

Post by **Mustafa** » Mon May 01, 2006 9:39 am

shrimpbaby wrote: I've never been one to skimp on waterchanges with my tanks. Even with a small bioload I usually try to do 50% wc's every week, but with these larvae I have been doing 20% wc's twice a day. That's certainly more than I would do on my other tanks.

Good! Sounds like you're going to have lots of success with keeping and breeding all kinds of shrimp then.

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Mon May 01, 2006 1:10 pm

Well, the baby shrimp are exactly a week old today. I counted eleven earlier that I could see. They are definately not larvae anymore, but full-fledged tiny shrimp. Am I right in assuming that the most critical time for them is over? I'm not planning to slow down on waterchanges or anything, just wondering if they are somewhat "out of the woods" now that they are on the ground.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Mon May 01, 2006 1:19 pm

As long as there is nothing in there that willeat them, they should be OK.

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Tue May 02, 2006 11:10 am

My week-old batch is still going strong and my two females both gave birth last night so I moved the mom's out and now I've got lots of babies. I can't wait to see how many I will end up with out of these three batches.

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Thu May 11, 2006 12:39 pm

Well, so far I have at least 30 babies, I think, from my three batches. The oldest ones are getting bigger and my younger ones have all gone through their first molt and are on the ground. They sure have been fun to watch. At least one of my females is carrying eggs again so I'm sure that I do another go round with the three females.

BenjaminS · Post by **BenjaminS** » Mon May 15, 2006 6:25 am

Hi there,
It sounds like you've done an excellent job! I have also recently bred my ghosties and I have babies everywhere! I find it hard to get an accurate count because my tank is full of java moss and they are swimming and crawling over everything. My two big females are carrying eggs again and it looks like a very large batch. I'm surprised at how quickly they are growing and how well they are doing. I'm thinkig of perhaps putting some in an outside pond in my backyard and seeing how they will do in there. In my opinion, java moss seems to really help raising these little guys as well as having a web site such as this one. I couldn't have done it without it's guidance. Thanks again Mustafa!

Post by **Mustafa** » Mon May 15, 2006 7:07 am

Congratulations all!

As I have said before, these shrimp are up there on my list of "most favorite shrimp" and it would be great if hobbyists could actually exchange them after breeding them in enough numbers. That way there would be another source for these shrimp instead of the usual "I bought them as feeder shrimp from the local pet store." Even the most abundant animals can become threatened if they are removed from nature without control.

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Baby ghost Feeding Questions

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