Ghost Shrimp Pregnant

[trinitie]

Hi! Had a problem with my tank a while ago, had an algae bloom but thanks to advice on here i've got it all sorted and now looks beautiful!!
 
I found 5 baby swordtails not long after sorting it too so I must be doing something right.
 
Well, thing is one of my ghost shrimps is now pregnant, didnt realise until my partner pointed out how different she looked to the others.
My problem is i've read that baby shrimp need certain foods, what sort of things should I feed them, when they're born to try and help them survive?
 
Thanks

 

[This Old Spouse]

Shrimp don't get pregnant ... they lay eggs. Don't worry about trying to do anything special as the way they feed is to pick up nearly microscopic organisms and leftover food.

 

[trinitie]

Well yeah thats what I meant, you can see shes full of eggs and shes kind of pulsating. Do you know if that means shes quite far gone? I read it takes between 20 and 30 days for the eggs to hatch.

 

[Baccus]

There are a couple of shrimp called Ghost Shrimp, it seems to be a catchall name given to any clear  fresh water shrimp that didn't come with correct scientific name. Since I don't know which country your in I will guess that your Ghost shrimp is actually one of the Palaemonetes family.
 
Palaemonete shrimp are very hard to raise in the standard aquarium. They have larval stages with the young rather than miniature adults like caridina and neocaridina. You could try removing the berried female to a separate tank and adding some aquarium salts once the young are born, or gradually raise the salinity while the female is still berried. The young need very fine foods and infusoria is reputed to be  a good first food source.
 
Generally for breeding these guys in captivity its suggested doing it outside in ponds which will have much more foods available.

 

[trinitie]

Thanks for the information.
 
I've just had a look at a whole load of different shrimp and mine are known as amano shrimp, does that make any difference? or would you still do the same thing?
 
Thanks

 

[Baccus]

Amano shrimp are the same in difficulty to breed successfully in aquariums, there is work being done to bred them in captivity so that they don't have to always be wild caught, but I don't know if its been 100% achieved yet.

 

[trinitie]

huh, they just kinda did breed...must be doing something right then haha. Shes still carrying so think i'm gonna put her in a seperate tank like you suggested.

 

[Baccus]

Unfortunately they will breed readily in aquariums, the females will almost always be berried, the problem arises actually raising the young because of their special requirements. If serious about wanting to try and raise these difficult offspring, I would suggest setting up some outside water in the sun, and add some lettuce (lettuce is an old way of raising infusoria, which is not always the most effective) to act as a food and catalyst for the infurosia to feed on.
 
A tank with larval shrimp will need regular water changes because a filter is just going to suck up the larval shrimp as well as their food supply. An airstone bubbling in their water however would be a good idea to keep the water circulating.
 
The next issue will be the salinity levels which need to keep changing as the shrimp larva develop. From my understanding the larva will need a brackish salinity level decreasing to pure fresh as they mature into proper shrimp. I am pretty sure some breeders have perfected the technique but it is a closely guarded secret.
 
Best of luck with this project and keep us posted on any progress.