Red-nosed shrimp in brackish water??

[Shanna]

Hi. I just got some red nosed shrimp. I read that they needed to be in brackish water in order to reproduce, so I've been keeping them in brackish water. IS THIS INFORMATION CORRECT???

[Jackie]

They need brackish water to reproduce, but don't keep them in brackish water. Those are FRESHWATER shrimp.

[eraserbones]

Shanna --

A lot of freshwater shrimp species live in freshwater in coastal areas. The adults live and spawn in freshwater, but their young (in the form of tiny, tiny floating plankton) drift downstream and into the ocean, saltmarshes, or other brackish areas where they spend the first few weeks of their lives before swimming back upstream.

So, you'll definitely want to keep your adult red-nose shrimp in freshwater. If you want to rear their offspring, however, you'll need to provide brackish conditions to the larvae. This is quite a trick, and if you search around on this site you'll find reports from various people trying it out (mostly with Yamato/Amano shrimp which have a life cycle similar to that of red-nosed shrimp.)

[Shanna]

providing they are fed enough, is it likely that they will breed?? That is, assuming enough of them live; out of 9, 2 have died, one in the bag and one in the tank.

[Jackie]

I,ve never heard of anyone who successed in breeding these shrimp, but it's worth a try

[Shanna]

I'm going to try it. I have 7 left, so theres gotta be a sex mix in there. By the way..... I slowly changed their water to fresh. The people that sold them to me said they should be in brackish water.

So...... in order to breed, do the SHRIMP need to be put in brackish water, or do I just need to transfer the LARVAE to brackish water?

[GunmetalBlue]

providing they are fed enough, is it likely that they will breed??

His Shanna, shrimp breed if they are provided conditions they are happy with, not just food but water parameters and conditions they are comfortable with. Like in the example of how some fish might prefer say, soft acidic water to start breeding.

Both Eraserbone, Jackie and now I will confirm, the adult shrimp are freshwater. What you can do is when the adult berried shrimp is soon to release her larvae, she can be placed in a grow out tank. When she releases the eggs (larvae), put her back in the regular tank.

Then in the grow out tank containing the larvae, slowly raise the salinity through small daily water changes till it reaches approximately 17 - 24 ppt. You'll have to look up how to properly prepare marine water and you'll need a hydrometer to measure. If you've ever had a salt water tank, that should help. Possibly liquifry and algae are foods the larvae can feed on. After about a month, when they turn into tiny shrimp, again slowly transition them back to freshwater through small daily water changes.

-GB

[eraserbones]

Shanna --

There's a good (if intimidating) guide to doing this with Yamato/Amano shrimp here:

http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/breeding_yamato.htm

The process with red-nosed shrimp is probably similar, although I have no idea what level of salinity the young would require. Probably you'll have to experiment -- I doubt that anyone will have any clear facts about this.

Whether you meet with success or failure, it'd be great if you could report back on what you learn...

-Andrew

[Veneer]

A breeding account for red-noses can be found here.

[chlorophyll]

Very cool. An account of successful red nose larval rearing. Stumbling upon the right salinity (if it's not simply full strength seawater) is a big answer!