fairy shrimp

maxilaria · Post by **maxilaria** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:37 am

Hello,
I'm new to petshrimp . I'm looking for information on fairy shrimp from a permanent water source. In other words ones that don't need a dry period to reproduce. I'm setting up a 55 gal invert community tank and was hoping to use them instead of fish. Any advice would be most appreciated.
thanks

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:24 am

I'm not sure if they will produce live babies like brine shrimp. It is easy to try & find out. Get some dirt from a dried up pond known to have fairy shrimp and hatch some out. Even if it doesn't work you learn something.

iturnrocks · Post by **iturnrocks** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:08 pm

Im pretty sure fairy shrimp need a dry or freezing spell to induce hatching, but I could be wrong. You could just hatch a new batch every couple months and add to your existing tank. I havent observed fairy shrimp laying behavior- I think I read they keep the eggs until they die. If so, you could scoop the dead females, and place them in some sand and dry the eggs out that way.

Seed shrimp however will contine to reproduce like crazy. I have started with about 3 hatched and a couple months later I had over 100. Although they arent as cool as fairy shrimp, they look like sesame seeds swimming around.

Seed shrimp (Ostracoda), 60x