Very pregnant sexy shrimp

[tribbitt]

I have one sexy shrimp that has lots of what seem to be somewhat developed eggs. How can I get those babies to adult size? It would be so awesome to have a little swarm of baby sexy shrimp.

I am pretty sure the eggs have eyes already.

 

[yosemiteclimber]

Geat pics! You have to isolate, otherwise they'll get gobbled up in your DT, by literally EVERYTHING.

 

[tribbitt]

OK so in the time it took me to write this and for a response to come in (while I did research) it appears she dropped or hatched the eggs….. Somewhere into the tank

The other female also appears to have eggs just way less developed. No eyes yet

 

[CaseyP]

I would think they'd hatch as free swimming larva. When I've had hermit crabs, cleaner shrimp, and pithos crab spawn, it's usually thousands of tiny swimming larva that get released at night. By end of the next day they're usually gone. Either eaten, sucked into the filters, or hiding somewhere. Isolation is definitely your best bet.

 

[tribbitt]

Cannot find any babies in the tank, nor the egg bundle if she dropped the whole thing, spooked by a fish or something. Hoping the currently pregnant female doesn't do the same - I have her isolated in a cup floating in the tank, with bubbles and a small piece of LR.

Should I be keeping her in the container for the two weeks till hatch? Or should I try to catch her once she gets further along?

 

[ReyDeFarts]

Should I be keeping her in the container for the two weeks till hatch? Or should I try to catch her once she gets further along?

I'd let her loose in your tank. She was thriving in there and happy enough to want to breed. You should be proud of that IMO. Now she's condemned to a trap. I know that sounds harsh, but just let her be. Whatever babies survive, will survive. If you're breeding sexy shrimp, then setup a display for that task. Otherwise, to me it seems you will be causing undue stress on the female.

I breed caradina shrimp. I understand they are completely different. But the point I want to make is I have those tanks specifically suited for their survival. I focused for months on developing the right biome for the shrimplets to survive and thrive by having an abundance of food and zero potential predation. Good luck either way you approach it.

 

[tribbitt]

I'd let her loose in your tank. She was thriving in there and happy enough to want to breed. You should be proud of that IMO. Now she's condemned to a trap. I know that sounds harsh, but just let her be. Whatever babies survive, will survive. If you're breeding sexy shrimp, then setup a display for that task. Otherwise, to me it seems you will be causing undue stress on the female.

I breed caradina shrimp. I understand they are completely different. But the point I want to make is I have those tanks specifically suited for their survival. I focused for months on developing the right biome for the shrimplets to survive and thrive by having an abundance of food and zero potential predation. Good luck either way you approach it.

Problem is. Unlike freshwater, once she releases the babies, there’s essentially no hope for the babies. They will die. Filtration, fish, corals, lack of food will (rapidly) whittle down their population since the babies are not miniature adults - they are little sticks that can’t move by themselves. I think the only way to get a tank that can let those shrimplets thrive is to build something similar to a kriesel, and I don’t think that’s a healthy environment for an adult.

My current plan is to wait for the eggs to get more developed, then keep her in the container for hopefully just a day or two while she releases the babies, and she’ll get added back to the tank. Might just take some guesswork on the timing

 

[Darkxerox]

I have a feeling you need one of those jellyfish style Kriesel tanks and there's probably some intermediate stages where you need to feed obscure foods to increase success. Seems like there's a few people that have done it if you search around online, but you're looking at almost a month before settlement.

 

[tribbitt]

I have a feeling you need one of those jellyfish style Kriesel tanks and there's probably some intermediate stages where you need to feed obscure foods to increase success. Seems like there's a few people that have done it if you search around online, but you're looking at almost a month before settlement.

Right. Luckily they don’t actually need weird foods they can just eat baby artemia apparently

 

[Darkxerox]

Might still be interesting if you try apocyclops or tisbe pods from like @Coral Hub (Nathan) since you can keep adding live ones without having to hatch BBS every day just to give yourself a break. Would be a good thing to test. Worst case is if they don't eat them you dump them into your tank.

 

[tribbitt]

The female who dropped her eggs is pregnant again. At least I know I'll have multiple shots at this

 

[yosemiteclimber]

The female who dropped her eggs is pregnant again. At least I know I'll have multiple shots at this

Haha wow!

 

[tribbitt]

Update: I just caught a batch of a few hundred babies. I urgently need brine shrimp eggs. I'm nearly certain they eat phytoplankton, and I'm willing to give that a go. My phyto isn't fresh and is probably dead but there's enough problems I don't expect success to begin with. I'll also try reef roids since they're freeze-dried zooplankton

I'll try to be more prepared for next time since this time I don't have time to go shopping for artemia eggs

They're currently bubbling around, flow looks good and they'll be OK on their yolks for a day but they'll need food after that.

 

[Darkxerox]

Could try finding golden pearls locally if any stores carry it. They're 5-50 micron in size.