PLEASE HELP keep whisker shrimp alive!?!

[chelsea.adell]

Several months ago i stumbled upon a few "ghost shrimp" that were definitely NOT ghost shrimp, they are long armed with bluish claws(macrobrachium sp from pictures ive compared) i got them, cant find any GOOD solid information on optimum temp/breeding/raising the larval stage. a couple weeks after i got them one became berried, i moved her to a tank with only ghost shrimp, more than a month later i noticed the tiny larva drifting around the tank, counted 20 the first day, numbers started going down daily and 3 days later, never saw another one. the other female became berried maybe a week before the first one released hers, so in hopes of saving them i placed her in a breeder box but in a couple days my guppies had babies and i needed it for them so i released the 3 day old fry (~20) in the ghost shrimp tank, they were gone in a few days, looking back i would have let the guppies get eaten... anyway theres another one pregnant now, the 1 male and 2 female whisker shrimp i have are in a 20 gal long planted tank(eggeria, wysteria, 2 anubis, and a small piece of a moss ball) Im waiting on some christmas moss that i hope arrives before the next ones hatch, it supposedly grows the microorganisms the larva eat. Also waiting on some "green water". And ive been looking for "liquifry" at the LFS but havent found it, gonna have to order it. The tank is with spring water, an air driven sponge filter, a 20-30gal whisper carbon filter, and a homemade CO2 bubbler, water temp stays between 74-75 F and water changes about 40-50% every 3-4 weeks with multiple fresh gallons added in between. The 3 whisker shrimp are living with 7-8 fancy shrimp, a small(1 in) albino quarry catfish, and a tiny clown pleco.. Anyway is there anything else i can do for them to up their chances of survival? Id REALLY like to keep them alive. They are so cool!!! Any advice or experience is welcome and appreciated!!! Thanks! =)

[Mustafa]

Do you have pictures of the shrimp? From your description it sounds like you're talking about Macrobrachium rosenbergii, whose larvae need brackish water to survive and turn into postlarvae. Do a search on that species and see if your shrimp fits that description. There is lots of info out there about it as it's a commercially mass produced food shrimp.

[chelsea.adell]

I cant upload a pic, it says file too big. I tried my phone, my camera, and my tablet and thats what it says everytime. =( I even got a few decent pics... but no the shrimp are not that big, they are 3inches and havent gotten any bigger in the 3-4months ive had them. From the pictures ive compared they look like "indian" or "burmese" whisker shrimp, but I cant tell what their claws look like in the pictures. And the ones I have only the actual claw is bluish, not the whole arm. They are also NOT very aggressive, they squabble over food but they dont hurt anything and they certainly never hurt any of my community fish when I had them in that tank. I have a couple more weeks before these ones hatch and id like to figure out what I need to do to keep them alive. And would you be able to recommend a good site for information on them? All I find is half complete information or garble from people who dont really know anything, or might be talking about a different shrimp altogether. Thank you so much for the help! And is there another way to post a picture? Im sure that would be helpful, I have them, it just wont let me post them.

[chelsea.adell]

Well this Is with my phone camera so Its not very good but its all it will let me post.

[Mustafa]

Ok, the picture is pretty blurry but good enough. It appears to be Macrobrachium lanchesteri. Perform a search about it in the forum as we have discussed that shrimp quite a few times before. Basically, the larvae don't need any saltwater. They float around for about 30 days or so before turning into mini shrimp. You can feed them with either baby brine shrimp or some kind of artificial food for fish larvae. *Possibly* really finely ground flake food may work. They are small so they need very little food, but I'd feed them twice a day or so. I'd use a 5 or 10 gallon as a rearing tank if I were you. I don't think a new tank will cycle fast enough for this batch to survive in it but you can try rearing future batches of larvae.

[chelsea.adell]

I believe you are right! I had thought that might be it when I first started looking, but ive read several places theyre "believed to be vegetarian" and mine DEVOUR snails(I originally had them in a community tank with a clown loach I crushed snails for and the whisker shrimp wrestled the snails away from it!) Things like that are why I question the integrity of the information.
But about another tank, I have a 2 gal set up with nothing but 3 ghost shrimp and a fancy shrimp(it was for a dwarf puffer, but the poor thing was so starved when I got it it didnt make it through the night) would that be suitable just until they morph? I can just empty it and take water from the 20gal the whisker shrimp is In now. And I have the brine shrimp you can hatch, I did it once and fed them to the baby guppies so thats a definite go. What about the "green water" and "liquifry"? Ive never used either, waiting on the green water, been thinking about ordering some liquifry but havent been able to talk to anyone that would know if its suitable for shrimp . (MOST of the staff at my LFS, all 6 that I frequent, sadly know nothing) And what makes the larval stage of these different from ghost shrimp?(just curiosity, ive had success breeding ghost shrimp, though im starting to think that was all luck)
Thank you so much for the identification, at least I know what im looking for information on now! =)

[chelsea.adell]

Oops. Brainfart. I mixed up M lanchesteri and M lamarrei, I had thought they were the M lamarrei. M lanchesteri are ghost/glass/grass shrimp arent they? But I have a whole tank of ghost shrimp and the 3 "whisker" shrimp are at least double the size of the ghosties. Im gonna go put them in a box together and get a pic. And not only are they bigger, they have long arms that the ghosties dont, I wish I could get a picture of their long arms but that has proved unsuccessful. Maybe it will be visible in the breeder box. Fingers crossed.

[Mustafa]

"ghost shrimp" is a generic term applied to all kinds of shrimp. The "normal" ghost shrimp in the US is Palaemonetes paludosus. Your shrimp are different from that species.