Palaemonetes paludosus, rearing babies

[Corwin]

hello i am new to shrimp, got started by mduros and her cherries (they have a 10 gall to themselevs and are breeding great). a few weeks ag i bought some feeder ghost srhimp, which i identified as the Palaemonetes paludosus because of the beautiful red markings they have.

They are in a 30 gallon comunity right now, and i woke up to find one berried this morning. i know the babies wont survive the comunity tank., so i am planning to mover her to either the cherry's 10 gallon (year old tank, with lots of detritus and decomposing leaves) or one of 2 2.5 gallons i have stiing around.

if i want to successfully rear and raise the babies (i know this is one of the harder ones, i read the profile on the website), how would i proceed..i have no idea how long i have till they hatch, but either way i want to raise some of these guys (yes i have shrimp madness), if not this time the next time.

thanks for any help
-Corwin

[Mustafa]

Welcome Corwin,

It is a rule here to search the forum first (besides reading the species profiles and articles) before jumping into posting. This topic has been discussed multiple times so you should find more than enough information. If something is not clear still after your search, you can always come back and ask for clarification.

[Corwin]

hey there,

i did read the thread in question (though i missed the part about having 1 month), as well as a few others somewhat relating to the subject, i guess i should have tailored my questions better however.

Would my old ten gallon tank have enough micro food for the fry (what is the proper term..larvae?), or how would i check or know if it does?

My other question would be..how in the world do i 'culture' micro foods? i cannot buy any more tanks than i have, i am limited on room, i have 2 empty 2.5 gallons, one 10 RCS and one 30 community. i have read on many different ways to start micro food cultures..i have no idea which route to take. if somethign more extreme is needed to culture hem then those tanks, then maybe there are 'microfoods' i can buy?

and, which type of microfood is better for the fry too, i just thought of that..cause there are a lot of diferent ones...guess i am a bit lost here, i have only ever bred easy critters before (RCS, Guppies, and now H. Rasboras by accident) never requiring anythign more than crushed flakes.

[badflash]

If you have a well aged tank you should be able to see copepods moving around the tank walls and swimming around. This is fine food for them. They will also eat a product known as Golden Pearls that can be easily purchased over the internet. 500 micron or smaller seems to work fine. The big problem is that you can easily overfeed and foul the water.

Having some small ramshorn snails like red rams helps with that. Young shrimp also seem to eat hatchling snails. Add some plants like Guppy Grass and light on a 12 hour on/off timer and keep the water around 80 degrees and use a good quality sponge filter (air powered).

[Corwin]

if 500 micron is okay, then newly hatched brine shrimp would work? i was under the impression micro foods were much smaller (then again i know nothing on the subject)

my 10 gallon RCS tank has guppy grass (hornwort), and java moss, it also has driftwood, and a tiny amount of copepods, i see them once in a while they hide in the substrate. I also have ramshorn[comon not red], spixi and MTS in that tank. i fear the copepod population is probably too low at the moment..but if 500 microns is ok i will just hatch me some brine shrimp, or buy decapsulated brine shrimp eggs.

are these assumptions correct? thanks again for all the help!

PS: love the new look of the forums

[badflash]

Brine shrimp will foul the tank. They also tend to bring on hydra infestations, and those will wipe out your larva. They don't last long enough in fresh water. If these were brackish shrimp, it would work fine. I don't know what salt tolerance normal ghost shrimp have, but most shrimp have no problem is 2 teaspoons per gallon. Brine shrimp will last over 24 hours at that level.

Just watch you don't overfeed.

[Corwin]

just figured id post a pic of my berried ghost shrimp, there are 2 now ^ ^! (click for larger):

[Neonshrimp]

The eggs are larger than I thought they would be, best wishes with them.

[shrimpbaby]

if 500 micron is okay, then newly hatched brine shrimp would work? i was under the impression micro foods were much smaller (then again i know nothing on the subject)

my 10 gallon RCS tank has guppy grass (hornwort), and java moss, it also has driftwood, and a tiny amount of copepods, i see them once in a while they hide in the substrate. I also have ramshorn[comon not red], spixi and MTS in that tank. i fear the copepod population is probably too low at the moment..but if 500 microns is ok i will just hatch me some brine shrimp, or buy decapsulated brine shrimp eggs.

are these assumptions correct? thanks again for all the help!

PS: love the new look of the forums

I've used 50-100 micron Golden Pearls and freeze-dried rotifers to feed mine, although I've had some survive on the natural infusoria in my well established tanks as well.