Amano Shrimp Zoe Diary

[voo]

I bought some Amano shrimp yesterday, one female was bursting with eggs which had tiny black dots in them - the eyes. So i decided to keep her separate in a 1g tank and overnight she gave birth. There's a few zoes floating around, however there seems to be a lot of eggs unhatched on the bottom of the tank. Should i leave these and see if any hatch, or will they make the water go bad?

I've got some green water and fertilizer on order which will hopefuly arrive in the next few days. They're currently in the small tank with a sponge filter. Is this ok, or should i change it to an airstone?

I'll mix up some marine salt in water later today and probably add it tomorrow. The mother shrimp has already gone back in the main tank as she had no eggs left on her.

I'm guessing either the change in water conditions caused her to give birth, or maybe the stress of moving to a new tank made her give birth prematurely and that's why i have to many unhatched eggs...

Anyone got some hints and tips on this? I've read Bloo and Mr G's attempts last year (I actually had a shrimp with eggs around the same time but she decided to jump out of the tank! )

Will a 1g tank be ok, or will they do better in the PFK nano tank?

 

[voo]

Well i've got a tank set up with water at 35ppm, i'm thinking of lowering this slightly so that when water evaporates it wont go too high. Leaving it to aerate overnight and adding some phytoplankton to it. Does anyone know how often it should be fed with ferts?

I'm hoping to move the zoes over to their new home tomorrow, lets hope it goes well

 

[voo]

The ones i've been able to catch have been added to the salt water now

 

[Bloo]

Sounds great out of interest, why add them to the saltwater so soon? If I remember correctly, previous reports said they should be added around the 7-10 day mark. Would be interesting to see how it goes.

Good luck!

ps: in my opinion the 1 gallon will be just fine for now.

 

[voo]

I'm sure i read somewhere they should be added within a week to saltwater. Maybe in my haste and panic i misread something Is there anyway to tell if they are still alive once they are in the murky green water?

I think i still have a few left in the freshwater, i'll leave them in for a few more days before transferring them. I was just worried about all the unhatched eggs still laying on the bottom, whether they'd make the water bad.

Although i may be getting ahead of myself, but how do i tell when they have transformed into shrimp? I read that once transformed they should be swiftly removed from the saltwater and slowly put into freshwater. The trouble is, how do i see inside the green water to see if they have changed?

Also, would water changes be advisable? Does the green water make the water go bad?

Sounds great out of interest, why add them to the saltwater so soon? If I remember correctly, previous reports said they should be added around the 7-10 day mark. Would be interesting to see how it goes.

Good luck!

ps: in my opinion the 1 gallon will be just fine for now.

 

[Bloo]

I think this may be a case of the blind leading the blind My experience really only lasted 10 days since the zoes hatched and seems already to be a bit different from yours.
My female took quite a few days to release the zoes. She never dropped any eggs unhatched. And dropped (I guess) around 30 or so a day.

There doesn't seem to yet be a hard and fast, tried and tested success method. So anything I advise will merely be from what I've gathered from other people's information - not exactly numerous experiments I've done myself. I wish

But now that I no longer have a planted tank and my shrimp fend for themselves in my large tank with large fish - where by miracle a handful still seem to be alive after a couple of years), I can no longer really try breeding again. Until I have a planted tank where I can closely watch the shrimp & their behaviour.

From what I've read, you'll very definitely notice the transformation from zoe to mini shrimp.

And in terms of water change - you're going to have to do top-up's anyway, so a tiny change is probably not a bad idea.

It's tough I know - but it's very much trial and error I think.

Best of luck

 

[voo]

I'm thinking the female may have dropped all the eggs due to stress of moving, i had just bought her from the shop.

I had already transferred most of the zoes to the salt water yesterday before reading this - i couldnt see any left in the water. However this morning when i put a light over the tank, there must have been 30+ coming up to the top of the tank. I'm thinking some of the eggs that were dropped have since hatched Looks like i'm getting a second chance to do things right. Although i am faily sure they were born overnight, i cant be sure. So maybe i'll wait 4 days till i move them over. That way at the most, they've been in the fresh water for 7-8 days, which should be ok i hope.

As for the saltwater batch, when i removed the lid and put the light over the top, i could only see 1 or 2 zoes coming to the top Does this mean the rest could be dead, or do they no longer come towards the light when in green water?

 

[voo]

Removed all the eggs earlier today just incase they turned the water bad. Luckily i saved them in a jug along with some of the tank water, as i was changing some of the water they were in. I checked back later, found out loads of them had hatched

 

[voo]

Another shrimp has got eggs

 

[petetong]

Hi Voo

Congrats on the new additions to your brood. New here. If you ever think you got too many feel free to send some my way.

 

[voo]

If i can keep them alive then sure, you're not too far from here.

As an update:

All those initially added to the greenwater seem to have vanished.Nothing is coming to the surface when the light is placed directly above the water.

Those still in the freshwater seem to still be hatching from the eggs. Once again, i removed a load of gunk from the bottom of the tank, including the eggs, which i thought would have been bad by now, yet since then more have hatched.
I see to have a problem with some of the zoes being caught up in the surface tension, they've got stuck around the edges and can be seen on the sides where the water level has gone down

Added a few more to the green water today, also did a 20% water change in the salt water, bought the salinity down to 30ppm from 35ppm.

I'm thinking of slowly raising the salinity in the freshwater tank up to 30ppm over a couple of days. When the zoes are taken from the freshwater and put into salt, they seem to spaz out on the surface for a while.

 

[iSnail]

I see to have a problem with some of the zoes being caught up in the surface tension, they've got stuck around the edges and can be seen on the sides where the water level has gone down

I have no experience in raising Amanos myself but I think I've seen somewhere that you can try positioning your airstone (assuming you are using one) nearer the top to avoid/reduce this surface tension problem. If I ever find this info again, I'll post and let you know. Hope to see pictures of your baby Amanos soon. Good luck!

 

[voo]

It's hard to take a photo of the zoes, my camera doesn't focus on them well. I have to try get it to focus on the sponge filter and hope there's shrimp infront.

This is a shot of the 2nd tank. This was freshwater, where the eggs hatched, however lately i've been slowly adding salt to the tank (removing 1L, adding 1L of 30ppm salt water daily). This has bought the salinity up slowly to 20ppm so far. My goal is 30ppm in a few days. The zoes seem to be fine with this. I add a small amount of green water and ferts to replace what would have been taken out.

A brine shrimp sieve comes in very handy when doing water changes, i can place it in the water and remove the water from inside it with a syring, without the risk of sucking up any zoes

I've noticed that even with a light over the tank 24/7, a lot of the zoes hang around the bottom of the tank. There is some waste there which i cant remove due to so many zoes around, but there's also some green building up so maybe they're feeding on that. I cant see much floating around in the water, although the water is green. Does this mean there is stuff in the water, or it's just discoloured?

As for my first attempt in the larger tub, this appears to have failed (i cant see any life inside), although i am keeping it running. My thoughts are:

1. It's a very dark green, so maybe i put too much green water in to start with and it's gone bad.
2. Maybe they didnt take to being added straight to salt very well.
3. I added the zoes too early to the salt.
4. Perhaps some are alive, and as with the 2nd attempt, they are hanging around the bottom and so cant be seen. This is why i'll leave it running a while longer.

 

[iSnail]

Any update on this, voo?