Algae Shrimp Breeding

[MHunt]

Hello all,

I've kept algae shrimp for a little while now for keeping the algae under control in my planted tanks. I just set up another not quite so planted nano and moved one of the two shrimp I had into it to control the algae growth, I added another 5 about a week ago as there was far too much for one shrimp to eat and today noticed the original shrimp appears to be carrying eggs under it's rear legs. Now is there anything I can do to raise these baby shrimp, or do they need (as i think i read somewhere) a spell in a salt water environment to mature? Any info or advice would be great.

matthew

 

[Esfa]

Yeah, they do need to be gradually risen to marine water conditions, then back into freshwater. Very difficult in home aquaria.

 

[iSnail]

Mathew, you don't say what kind of algae shrimps you have.

What are the eggs like? Very tiny and numbers in hundreds? or fairly large and couple of dozen eggs?

 

[MHunt]

I don't exactly know the species, the scientific name wasn't used at the LFS, but probably amano's. There's a load of tiny eggs that she's keeping under her tail which she fans from time to time. She keep adjusting them with her rear legs too.

 

[iSnail]

Does it look like this?

It sounds like you have Amano shrimps. Like Esfa says, they require Brackish - Marine strength salt water for their larvae to develop unfortunately

 

[MHunt]

Does it look like this?

It sounds like you have Amano shrimps. Like Esfa says, they require Brackish - Marine strength salt water for their larvae to develop unfortunately

Yeah that's the fella, (or lass!) Ah well, I guess I won't have the patter of tiny feet scuttling round the tank any time soon.

What kind of setup would do the job? Just a plain tank with a sponge filter? What about food, crushed algae tabs anyone? I could probably manage to raise the SG with marine salt and then dilute back down but it would mainly be trial and error without any kind of breeding guide. I'll have to google it!

 

[iSnail]

What kind of setup would do the job? Just a plain tank with a sponge filter? What about food, crushed algae tabs anyone? I could probably manage to raise the SG with marine salt and then dilute back down but it would mainly be trial and error without any kind of breeding guide. I'll have to google it!

You will need a separate tank for the larvae. There are a few members here who have tried. You can search for their threads. One is Bloo and the other I remember is Mr G.
Here's a good website with plenty of pictures too
http/caridina.japonica.online.fr/English/index.html

 

[MHunt]

What kind of setup would do the job? Just a plain tank with a sponge filter? What about food, crushed algae tabs anyone? I could probably manage to raise the SG with marine salt and then dilute back down but it would mainly be trial and error without any kind of breeding guide. I'll have to google it!

You will need a separate tank for the larvae. There are a few members here who have tried. You can search for their threads. One is Bloo and the other I remember is Mr G.
Here's a good website with plenty of pictures too
[URL="http/caridina.japonica.online.fr/English/index.html"]http/caridina.japonica.online.fr/English/index.html[/URL]

Just read it and the link to the breeding article [URL="http/mikes-machine.mine.nu/breeding_yamato.htm"]http/mikes-machine.mine.nu/breeding_yamato.htm[/URL] in the middle. To be honest at face value it doesn't seen too difficult. Now catching the little blighter to put it in a hatchery would prove much more challenging!

 

[iSnail]

Just read it and the link to the breeding article <a href="http/mikes-machine.mine.nu/breeding_yamato.htm" target="_blank">http/mikes-machine.mine.nu/breeding_yamato.htm</a> in the middle. To be honest at face value it doesn't seen too difficult. Now catching the little blighter to put it in a hatchery would prove much more challenging!

Actually, I often catch loads doing water change. I usually tie an extra fine net at the end of the gravel cleaner to catch any baby cherry shrimps I suck out and I tip the muck into a semi-transparent container so that I can recapture any shrimps and snails. The larvae tend to gather towards bright light and you can simply use a pipette to suck them out. Not ideal but it works

 

[MHunt]

Just read it and the link to the breeding article <a href="http/mikes-machine.mine.nu/breeding_yamato.htm" target="_blank">http/mikes-machine.mine.nu/breeding_yamato.htm</a> in the middle. To be honest at face value it doesn't seen too difficult. Now catching the little blighter to put it in a hatchery would prove much more challenging!

Actually, I often catch loads doing water change. I usually tie an extra fine net at the end of the gravel cleaner to catch any baby cherry shrimps I suck out and I tip the muck into a semi-transparent container so that I can recapture any shrimps and snails. The larvae tend to gather towards bright light and you can simply use a pipette to suck them out. Not ideal but it works

Ah just like catching brine shrimp in my mouth when I was siphoning, lovely stuff!