Cleaner shrimps breeding
- Thread starter markc
- Start date
has anybody raised them succesfully?
i've had a pair thats been breeeding for almost a year,
i've siphoned some out and tried raising them in a 10g
tank with a sponge filter and and lots of algae to keep
the nitrates low, and fed them a variety of food
(it was fish food, formula one and two and others)
i've seen them eat it, but they've never survived
past 1/2". then again, ive never raised anything and
dont really know what i was doing. i thought it was worth
a try though.
i've had a pair thats been breeeding for almost a year,
i've siphoned some out and tried raising them in a 10g
tank with a sponge filter and and lots of algae to keep
the nitrates low, and fed them a variety of food
(it was fish food, formula one and two and others)
i've seen them eat it, but they've never survived
past 1/2". then again, ive never raised anything and
dont really know what i was doing. i thought it was worth
a try though.
Depends on what shrimp you're talking about, ck.
The skunk cleaner shrimp, Lysmata amboinensis, has never been reared successfully by any hobbyist. The Waikiki Aquarium is the only place I've heard of that has reared them, with techniques not easily duplicated at home.
The peppermint shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni, can be raised with Artemia nauplii.
The skunk cleaner shrimp, Lysmata amboinensis, has never been reared successfully by any hobbyist. The Waikiki Aquarium is the only place I've heard of that has reared them, with techniques not easily duplicated at home.
The peppermint shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni, can be raised with Artemia nauplii.
I have researched this topic exhausively, because I am contemplating commercial propagation of Lysmata, et al.
To date, the Waikiki Aquarium and Tropical Marine Center have published success with Lysmata amboinensis, wurdemanni, and supposedly debelius.
The main reason "hobbyists" have trouble is water quality and feeding regimin and food quality.
After release from the parent (a protandrous hermaphrodite) the larva goes through the zoea phase in a day or two, then it enters a series (about 9) instars before final metamorphosis and settling.
Each molt is a perilous event in and of itself. If any peripheral metric is out of whack (water quality, poor nutrition, wrong lighting, depleted trace elements, etc...) then successful execution of the molt series taking the larva to semi-adulthood is nearly impossible. BTW, very few of us have systems adequate to the level needed to remove the detrimental peripheral parameters.
Add to this treacherous path, the fact that the final metamorphic molt is triggered by some heretofore unknown chemical cueing, and you have the recipe for frustration.
It can be, and has been done. There are so many variables, that those who do succeed really owe part of their success to luck.
Here are the BIG variables:
1. Water quality
2. Nutrition (not only for larva, but adult pre-spawn)
3. Lighting
4. Temperature, pH, Alk, Iodine, Ca,...
5. Shape of grow-out vessel
6. Aeration
7. Handling
Give it a try if you have no job, can be awake 24hrs a day, and can provide 100% flow through clean water on a continual basis
To date, the Waikiki Aquarium and Tropical Marine Center have published success with Lysmata amboinensis, wurdemanni, and supposedly debelius.
The main reason "hobbyists" have trouble is water quality and feeding regimin and food quality.
After release from the parent (a protandrous hermaphrodite) the larva goes through the zoea phase in a day or two, then it enters a series (about 9) instars before final metamorphosis and settling.
Each molt is a perilous event in and of itself. If any peripheral metric is out of whack (water quality, poor nutrition, wrong lighting, depleted trace elements, etc...) then successful execution of the molt series taking the larva to semi-adulthood is nearly impossible. BTW, very few of us have systems adequate to the level needed to remove the detrimental peripheral parameters.
Add to this treacherous path, the fact that the final metamorphic molt is triggered by some heretofore unknown chemical cueing, and you have the recipe for frustration.
It can be, and has been done. There are so many variables, that those who do succeed really owe part of their success to luck.
Here are the BIG variables:
1. Water quality
2. Nutrition (not only for larva, but adult pre-spawn)
3. Lighting
4. Temperature, pH, Alk, Iodine, Ca,...
5. Shape of grow-out vessel
6. Aeration
7. Handling
Give it a try if you have no job, can be awake 24hrs a day, and can provide 100% flow through clean water on a continual basis
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