tips on breeding ghost shrimp?

Baby_Girl · Post by **Baby_Girl** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:54 pm

Hi everyone. I have kept several species of shrimps in my life, but ghosties always stick out as my favorite. I now find myself with a vacant fully-cycled 10 gal tank (betta died) which is currently inhabited by lots of live plants and ramshorn snails. So I've decided to try my hand at breeding ghost shrimp, not for feeders or to sell, but just as pets.

After reading the relevant posts on this forum, it seems the hardest parts are keeping the adults from eating the nauplii and feeding the larvae. So my questions are: is it at all possible to keep adults with newly-hatched young? I know most people recommend separating the egg-bound female until the eggs hatch, and then removing her as soon as possible. Since I'm just doing this for fun, it might actually be preferable if not all the young survive. So if I have lots of java moss will at least some of the babies live? I've managed to raise a few baby ghosties in tanks with fish, totally unintentionally so I have no idea how they made it.

In terms of baby shrimp food, I have some freeze-dried phytoplankton and zooplankton (left over from a failed attempt at keeping bamboo shrimp... died after a bad molt). Will this powdered stuff be adequate or appropriate for ghost shrimp larvae?

Finally, I plan to purchase a sponge-filter to use with an air pump. That way, I won't have to deal with the hassle of pantyhose intake-covers getting clogged and totally ceasing the function of a power filter (which has happened to me several times in the past). Are there any other pieces of equipment or useful hints that might be helpful to me in my new endeavor?

Thanks in advance!

Baby_Girl · Post by **Baby_Girl** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:37 pm

Thought of a couple more questions:
How should I transition from a HOB power filter to a sponge filter? Just by letting the filter sponges float in the water, or running both together for a few weeks?

Also, most larvae are attracted to light. So I read something about keeping the sides of the tank covered. Why does this matter, especially if the tank already has an overhead light? Might using a flashlight help during water changes by drawing the larvae away from the siphon? Of course, I already plan on using pantyhose or a brine shrimp net over my Python to prevent sucking up any babies.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:49 pm

Baby_Girl wrote:Thought of a couple more questions:
How should I transition from a HOB power filter to a sponge filter? Just by letting the filter sponges float in the water, or running both together for a few weeks?

Also, most larvae are attracted to light. So I read something about keeping the sides of the tank covered. Why does this matter, especially if the tank already has an overhead light? Might using a flashlight help during water changes by drawing the larvae away from the siphon? Of course, I already plan on using pantyhose or a brine shrimp net over my Python to prevent sucking up any babies.

To be safe run them together, then move it to another tank. Use pond snails to keep the cycle going in the new tank. Blocking light is not needed for ghosts. Amanos need this as the larva are small enough toget stuck to the tank sides. Ghost babies are almost shrimp so it isn't an issue. You mostly need to provide clean water, micro food and no predators.

Baby_Girl · Post by **Baby_Girl** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:57 pm

badflash wrote:You mostly need to provide clean water, micro food and no predators.

Thanks for the easy advice!

It's my first invert only tank, so I've got the "no predators" part covered

I've seen that it's often recommended to do 10% water changes daily. Is that preferable over the 50% weekly that is my normal routine?

For micro food, the dried plankton are OK? I see most people recommend live foods or Golden Pearls. The plankton I have is kind of large. It's PhytoPlan phytoplankton and Cyclopeze micro-crustaceans, sorry I don't have size measurements for those.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:46 am

I would not feed them anything that big. Stick with golden pearls no bigger than 500 micron. Have a fry tank set up and either put the female in there just before the hatch, or remove the zoes you see in the water to this tank. While the zoes are morphing do not change the water and feed VERY sparingly but feed at least twice a day at regular intervals.

Be sure the adult is out of the tank once they hatch. They eat their babies.