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Re: Baby Ghost Shrimp

Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 5:03 pm
by Neonshrimp
Thank you for updating us on your young shrimp. Are they feeding and scavenging well?
One of the things that I'm noticing about the adults is that they haven't seemed to molt yet. One of them has turned white and the others seem to be turning white too. Any idea whats going on?
Clear shrimp that turn white is usually a bad sign. The shrimp usually dies after turning white, this has happened to some of my shrimp since I have been keeping them. Please let us know how it goes and I hope for the best :-)

Re: Baby Ghost Shrimp

Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 5:30 pm
by apistomaster
Ghost Glass Shrimp that become white or translucent are sick or extremely old.
You cannot raise this shrimp with the adults very few larvae will make it with the adults present..
They are not bothered by light in the least. In fact, the best nursery tanks are those with heavy growth of plants. I use a ten gallon tank with a substrate covered by pygmy chain sword plants and a floating plant like Salvinia, Ceratophyllum or Water sprite.
I have a very simple method which usually results in raising about 200 shrimp.
1. Use a tank as described above.
2. Place a large green net with open weave mesh so it hangs in the tank. Make sure the net is covered.
3 The breeders: I watch for females with new eggs shortly after a water change when many shrimp molt. This will assure most of the shrimp eggs will be the same age. Place four female shrimp laden with eggs in the net.
5. Remove each female after her eggs hatch. If you timed this right all females will have hatched their eggs within 72 hours of each other.
6. Feed the tank very lightly twice a day. I use a small pinch of FD CyclopEeze which I hydrate in a small prescription bottle with a little water by shaking it up and wait about 15 minutes to complete hydration and then add an eye dropper full to the nursery tank. I also ad a small amount of live baby brine shrimp once a day. It will probably be close to two weeks before the tiny shrimp are easily visible without a magnifying glass.
7. They are treated just like the adult from here on out. Feed all the same foods you would normally use. You should end up with so many shrimp that to finish growing them all to adults will take many ten gal tanks or fewer larger tanks.
This method is well tested and if you follow these directions, I guarantee you will be very successful.
Water parameters I use are. pH 7.4, KH6, GH 6, conductivity 160 microseimens, TDS 340 ppm and Temperature 78 to80*F.

Re: Baby Ghost Shrimp

Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 9:34 pm
by Mustafa
apistomaster wrote:Water parameters I use are. pH 7.4, KH6, GH 6, conductivity 160 microseimens, TDS 340 ppm and Temperature 78 to80*F.
Hmmm...something very wrong here. With a TDS of 340 it's impossible to have conductivity of 160 microsiemens/cm. Your conductivity should be almost exactly 570 if your TDS measurment is correct. TDS is derived from conductivity measurements. One is just another way of expressing the other. For normal tap water and river water TDS = about 0.6 times conductivity. Just thought I'd point this out so people don't get confused.

Re: Baby Ghost Shrimp

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 12:18 pm
by Guba
just an update. Only 4 shrimp made it to adult size from the wild caught parents. However, I now have several different age groups in the tank and though they aren't busting out in a big population explosion, they seem a lot hardier than what the parents were. :D I'm going to see how long I can keep this population going as they are pretty intresting and native species to boot!

Re: Baby Ghost Shrimp

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 4:25 pm
by Mustafa
Thanks for the update! :) These guys are definitely some of the most interesting shrimp out there. You can keep populations of these guys alive for years in large tanks if there are enough hiding spaces for the young and no fish to eat the larvae. I've had larvae grow up to adult size in a 55 gallon tank before with the parents in the same tank.