I have eggs! Ghost shrimp

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 4:08 pm

Loads of places for little floaters to hide is what is needed I think. I have a 1" layer if Riccia then clear space to the bottom of the tank. I'm using foam reverse flow filters that discharge under the gravel. This provides a gentle flow that doesn't suck up little guys and they like to graze on the foam filter when the morph into shrimp.

An easy source of micro-critters is the tea bag or "water conditioner" that comes with a triops kit. You can order these from triops.com for $1 each and shipping is included. I buy 10 to keep on hand. If you dump out the contents of one of these bags of detrius into a quart of distilled water, heat it to around 78 degrees and keep the lights on 24/7 all sorts of neat stuff hatches out. Lots of fairy shrimp at first, then maybe a triops or two, some daphnia, but after a week or two the container gets loaded with copepods.

The fairy shrimp won't hurt anything, but the triops will so if they show up you can give them to your kids, or find a hungry fish. Once you put the start of copepods in a tank they will feed on the detrius.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 6:21 pm

The first batch is now hatching and I have a tail-hanger floating in the tank once again. I transferred the two survivers from the first batch to the adult tank as soon as I saw the floater. I have three more berried females in the tank. I suspect there are more than the one I just saw. Yesterday the now eggless female had about thrity eggs with eyes looking out. I suspect they are hiding in the riccia and algae.

This time I am ready. Loads of micro food in the form of green water, copepods, moina, and rotifers. Now I feed the tank with green water and sit back.

soritan · Post by **soritan** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 10:55 pm

Well, my female vanished and never came back about two weeks ago. I thought at first she was molting, but it seems she's died for whatever reason. Can't find her anywhere, she's just gone. :/

I should have removed her and given it a whirl, low-tech style.

demented_lullaby · Post by **demented_lullaby** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 12:01 pm

soritan wrote: Once, I saw a shrimp casually walking along, rip off its own face and begin to eat it. *laugh* It was great.

Hey Soritan, don't I know you from petfish ^_^? Yes you have frogs too right?

My frogs do the same thing heh. OH MY GOD HAVE TO GET THIS ANNOYING SKIN OFF OF ME. Oh yummy. Haven't seen my shrimps do it yet.

take care

soritan · Post by **soritan** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:37 pm

Yep, I also saw you at plantgeek and dwarfpuffers.

Am I following you, or are you following me?

Post by **Mustafa** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:39 pm

I just wanted to say that I absolutely LOVE Palaemonetes paludosus (American glass/ghost shrimp). They are some of the most interesting shrimp around, but they are unfortunately not getting the respect they deserve as they are offered to the public for so cheap. But then again, quality specimen are not all that easy to find as most animals sold as "feeders" are usually in a terrible condition.

I have been toying with the notion of captive breeding large numbers of them to offer to the public, but then at the prices that people are (unfortunately) willing to pay for them (very little), it's barely worth the effort. I'll do it anyway once I have more space though since I love them so much.

demented_lullaby · Post by **demented_lullaby** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:26 pm

soritan wrote:Yep, I also saw you at plantgeek and dwarfpuffers.

Am I following you, or are you following me?

I think it may be a bit of both

sorry for off topic I'll be quiet hehe

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:10 pm

OK, I now have my first post-larval shrimp of this batch. It could be I missed the hatch, but I don't think so. That means the documentation is pretty far off on these shrimp as it is only a week from hatch to post larval. My survival rate is still pretty low (I think- hard to tell with all the stuff I have for them to hide in), but a bigger tank would probably be better.

I think they don't eat their own, but do need places to hang out. If you want to give it a shot I think the way to go is to isolate females when the eggs turn yellow and show eyes, be sure you have a tank with lots of detrius and small plants like riccia. Load it with moina and rotifers and copepods, then feed green water to the tank and do 25% water changes once a week. Test your water so that phosphates and nitrates are low. If moina are not multiplying the phosphates and nitrates are too high. They are a good indicator of water quality.

Post by **Mustafa** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:19 pm

badflash wrote: That means the documentation is pretty far off on these shrimp as it is only a week from hatch to post larval.

What documentation are you talking about? On my site about them it's indicated that the larvae become postlarvae within a few days only.

http://www.petshrimp.com/glassshrimp.html

I think I mentioned here before that it took my larvae about 6 days.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:41 pm

I found a publication:
"Biological Report 82 (11.35)
March 1985
Larayette, La. 70506
TR EL-82-4
Species Profiles: Life Histories and
Environmental Requirements of Coastal Fishes
and Invertebrates (Gulf of Mexico)
GRASS SHRIMP"

In there it indicated that they time was 11 days to several months. I may not have read the info correctly and it may apply to some other Palaemonetes species.

On my fist hatch I did not see any post larval shrimp for over a month, but I think they just hid very well as they were much larger than when I saw them than in this batch. The post larval shrimp this time are only about 3 times the size of the hatchlings.

Post by **Mustafa** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 12:28 pm

badflash wrote:I may not have read the info correctly and it may apply to some other Palaemonetes species

.

Yes, that's probably it.

Although, if the water temperature is low enough 11 days sounds just about right, but definitely not several months for Palaemonetes paludosus.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 7:25 pm

Yes, I found another publication that says that Palaemonetes paludosus only has 4 molts to post-larval. At 2 days a molt, a week is probably right.

I have 2 more females with eggs right now, so I'll watch more closely. They should be hatching soon.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 7:44 pm

I'm getting better at this! I've got around 20 tail hangers and 8-10 post larval gosts. What is odd is how long it is taking these eggs to hatch and over what a period! Out of the two females I have in the nursery now, their eggs are diminishing and the tail hangers are increasing, but this has been several days now.

In any event, this system seems to work. Add rotifers, copepods, Moina, and green water daily. Use a 2" layer of riccia for them to hide and for the microfood to breed. Wait and you'll have little shrimp.

soritan · Post by **soritan** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:27 pm

Wow, one of my remaining shrimp is holding bright green eggs again. Either they like me, or they breed very, very easily. These eggs look less mature than the last female that carried, so I've caught on a bit earlier in the process. Guess I'll give it the old college try (accumulate great debt, realize it's not what I want, drop out, and never pay off my student loans?).

*Edit: You know the weird thing is, I could swear I've only had two shrimp for at least a couple weeks, but looking at my two shrimp, I see they're both carrying eggs.

Very few eggs, mind, no where near as large as my previous clutch. One of them actually seems to only be carrying 5 eggs, while the other has more but not as much as my last shrimp had. I wonder where my male is hiding? I can't imagine it'd take over 2 weeks for shrimps to form fertilized eggs after mating?

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