Breeding Amano Shrimp

[scott67892002]

well done be great if it all works out!!

 

[oldwhitewood]

Amazing!

 

[smithrc]

odd question but... What colour were the egg that are now hatching?

I've seen ours carrying gray and orange eggs - I assumed that the orange were fertilised and the gray not...

I've been waiting to find another with orange to seperate but havent seen one since the last (lots of gray but no orange)

 

[Bloo]

Tricky. I'd say grey to be honest
(Edit: just seen your pics and mine's most certainly not orange. And none of those on the websites I've seen so far were either. So perhaps orange is the unfertilised stage).

I'm still a bit puzzled by the process. I had a good a look as I could tonight, but it's so hard to tell how many there really are at the moment. Probably only about 25 or so. But she's still full - and keeps "tickling" her underside - which I take means she's aeration the ones that aren't ready yet ?

I am off tomorrow to go and get some marine salt and then I'll have to make the tough decision whether to go with 17ppm or 35 ppm salinity (or just midway around 25 ?)

Get a 15watt compact fluorescent lamp and start off the tank for the "zoes" (babies). And transfer what I have after approx another 4 days from now.

Even with those great articles, I still feel a bit daunted by the challenge as I really had no time to prepare and it's all so last minute

Oh well, we shall see - I'll try my best but don't want to count my chickens (or shrimp!!) yet

Mom at the back with some little zoes
(Ps: don't worry - little bits of food has been siphoned off and I'm not feeding anything from now on).

 

[smithrc]

dead pleased for you

loads of shrimp would be cool (especially the price of amonos!)

 

[zig]

Personally i would go with a salinity of over 30, the 2 reports where people have sucessfully bred the shrimp that i have read and both of them have had failure with a salinity under 30. They both seem to suggest as a theory that there may be different populations of Japonica shrimp and perhaps the ones in the Japanese studies only did well at 17ppm but that other populations would not do so well, dont forget the female Japonica shrimp will nearly always be pregnant within about a month of the last time so you can always try again and be more prepared next time. If the higher salinity does not work next time you could try it lower. I would either go with 17 or go over 30 i wouldnt do an in between salinity.

Just my.2 cents, good luck with whatever you try.

 

[Bloo]

Thanks for your opinion Zig My gut feel was to go 30 - 35 ppm.

 

[YOYO]

Thats great news mate !!! Cant believe that its all happened in just the last few days ..... hope that you get some more from the brood . It will be fascinating to watch them grow up . to the little blighters !!!

 

[Bloo]

Well it's exactly a week (give or take a few hours), the zoes started appearing. The great news is they are still very much alive and kicking ! So this past week I've bought a Refractometer and some (Kent) Marine Salt . I also picked up a couple of very nice cheap small tanks from ebay that I'd like to use as a grow out tank (well..... if it comes to growing out).
I now have a tank ready with salt water mix @ 35ppt (1.026 SG) exactly. (With the help of a turkey baster) I've transferred 3 of the zoes into the mixture and now and hour later, they still seem to happily bob through the salty water. So I'll give it a few more hours and transfer some more zoes in with them.

The interesting thing is, the zoes are attracted to light. So it makes it quite easy to spot them now

Also, the curious thing is, the female is still pretty much laden with eggs as she was in that first photo. I can't quite figure that one out - how many does she still have in there ? Or does she just always carry eggs ? (these are more questions for myself to research, but insight will help).

I'm not going to bore you with (bad) pictures of dust specks that have grown to sand grain size I'll wait until I have the good camera again (and if they are still alive) in two weeks time, take some better photos.

This is more of a diary for myself. I'm not expecting ooo's and ahhh's, as I guess this might seem pretty boring for you guys. But feedback is obviously always appreciated

 

[George Farmer]

This is more of a diary for myself. I'm not expecting ooo's and ahhh's , as I guess this might seem pretty boring for you guys. But feedback is obviously always appreciated

"ooo's and ahhh's" from me!! It's far from boring, on the contrary the breeding of Amano shrimp is a very exciting prospect and my hat goes off to you. Keep us updated please and I look forward to seeing the little critters.

Who knows, you may have some spare for your favourite mod later this year?

 

[lljdma06]

Bloozoo! I can't believe I missed this thread! That's great that your breeding amanos! Keep up the great work. I really need to get a job singing in Covent Garden!

Congratulations!

 

[Bloo]

Thanks George "If" this is successful, there will certainly be some shrimp to make the rounds in return for all the lovely plants I have

Thanks lljdma06

I feel a bit like crying tonight though (and it's definitely given me a headache) Well it's a happy thing, but I just had a shocking realisation:

I lit the female's breeding tank properly, and within second zillions of zoes started rising to the light. I'm despairing, because even though it's a relatively easy task to capture them, it's painstaking to transfer from fresh to salt

I also went past my local marine shop today and asked them about the phytoplankton algae "Dunaliella Salina". Good thing I asked - I kinda got them impression (from what I read) you just let the saltwater do it's thing... wrong....

Anyway, so got the culture to add to the saltwater - and word of warning: forget about progress photos any time soon. The water is green (as it should be).

I've only transferred about 15 zoes so far, and will do some more tomorrow. Think there's a few hundred in the breeding tank. Might have to just live with the fact that I can try and transfer as many as I can and just let the rest be....

Crikey, what have I let myself in for ?!

 

[Ptarmigan]

.

 

[Bloo]

Thanks for the encouragement PtarmiganUK

Well my first "nervous/uncertain" 24 hours later, and they are still alive and kicking in the salt water. My biggest concern was how they'd take to the (high level sg) salty green solution. Well, so far so good and I'm going transfer more into it tonight. I think I put around 50 in there yesterday.

Oh and the turkey baster idea soon went out the window - it's way too big and sucks up too much water, so I have to switch to a tiny pipette. Major hard (back breaking) work I tell you guys !
Edit: just discovered an even better way: suck them out via small airline (ala gravel vac style) into a small clear glass. Then pipette them out from there and then over to salt water.

My current concern is whether the green water will provide the right kind and enough of the food they need to grow. Ideally this mixture should have been set up and thriving/growing well before the zoes went in, but alas I had no such time. Time will tell I guess.

Edit: Just transferred approximately another 50 or more. I'm calling it quits now and will work with what I have now. The female is still carrying, but I'm transferring her back to the big tank again. I figure if this is a success, I'll have zillions more to deal with. If it's a failure, I'll just wait for her to carry again (or any of the other females - though not sure how many females there are, as some are still young).

Note to self: I've also learnt that a 4 gallon is way to large for this stage while the zoes hatch and live in the fresh water for the first week. It's damn hard work to siphon them up and a smaller 2 gallon would work much better. If they survive this 25-40 day period (by which time they metamorphose), I'll transfer them to the 4 gallon as grow out.

I also thought I'd show you guys why you're not going to see any baby shrimp pics any time soon (well at least for the next 40 days)

 

[lljdma06]

That's some green water. I find it ironic that your are encouraging for these shrimp the very thing that most of us work hard to avoid.

Keep us posted Bloozoo, this is really an exciting development and I will watch this thread with interest.