True Peppermint Shrimp Pregnant.

[cdemeritt]

Hello,
I just saw that my True peppermint shrimp is carrying eggs. So I'm going to try hatching them again. I tryied it years ago, and it failed, they hatched, and then died. many mistakes on my part, but leared a lot from that first attempt. My thoughts are to set up a ten gallon hatching tank, with no substrate. due to how delicate the fry can be, no pumps or even air stones( unless you think I should).

Food: I have DT's Phytoplanton, Spraydried zooplankton, and decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. Any of these sutible? or are they all either too large or too small? I think I can get my hands on some live zooplankton as well.

I was also thinking about adding a small amount of the cheato I took from the main tank. Good Idea or not?

Thanks,
Chris

[ChilisREasy]

intresting i always wanted to raise peppermints..let me know how it goes.BTW how many do you have & how do you know its got eggs.

[ChilisREasy]

i found one site that says, a air rock on lowest setting can be used. put the shrimp in another tank WHEN CARRING EGGS so that the eggs dont get lost.takes 40 days to fullly grow.

[Twitterbait]

honestly i am not sure... due to the size of the larvae i would say greenwater is best. i have no doubt that they feed of bacterial slime that grows on LR in the ocean and out tanks.

good luck to you but i have only heard of one person being able to breed peppermints. if it works let us know!!!

[ChilisREasy]

green water ? can you explain ?

[cdemeritt]

Greenwater: Green with Phytoplankton.

Eggs: Visible under it's tail. Don't know if they are viable, but have 3 peppermints, so it is likely that they are. They were not there the other day when I moved the shrimp from the main tank. So they are no more than 5 days at this point. but I know chances of sucess are low, but worth the shot as I have most of the stuff to give it a try.

[cdemeritt]

Well, I found my notes from my last attempt to raise shrimp. That attemp was with Camel shrimp, and failed badly. The eggs hatched before I was fully ready, and all larve died within 7 days. I believe there were 2 primary reasons for this. First and most important was that they hatched before I had finished setting up for them, and I didn't have proper sized food ready for them. the second reason I believe I failed was because of the hatching container was improper. I had taken a 1 gallon jug, cut large panals in the sides and covered the holes with a fine mesh nylon, but because i was in a rush, I didn't smooth the seams as well as I should have, and some of the fry got caught in between the wall of the jug and the cloth, also the panals didn't go high enough, so the surface of the water in the jug didn't clear, and after a couple days, became real thick with organics, possibly leading to a oxygen poor enviroment in the center of the jug.
So I'm setting up a 10 gallon tank, with a 3/4" PVC airlift in the corner with a airstone that produces med. to large bubbles to help circulate the water and break the surface tention. My hope it to create a soup of living plankton in this tank to try and mimic the surface planktonic level of ocean for when the fry hatch. To do this I got some DT's Phyto's, (started to setup a growing array today) and got some of this product called "Reef Bugs" I was hoping it would be a mix of Zooplankton like the package implied, but instead it is mainly yeast and bacterias. still could be useful though. I'm have in the past observed marine parameciums under the microscope in my tank water, and hope there are other zooplankton in my water to which to seed the hatching tank. I'm also considering putting in some of the cheatomopha I took from the main system recently, as it is loaded with bristle worms and amphipods, and hopefully their larve will add to the living soup.
In a few day's I'll move the shrimp to the hatching tank. but if it is 40 days until hatching I've got some time. BTW: a second shrimp is now carrying eggs. reducing the odds that I had a male by 50%. I hope that the eggs are fertile. Guess only time will tell.
I'll keep you posted.

[cdemeritt]

Ok a Update on my progress. I initial found that the shrimp had eggs on 1-23-07, and someone mentioned that the eggs would take 40 days to mature, so I was taking my time setting up the hatching/growout tank. I even tiled the floor (get the floor tiled, so I could build the bench, so that the hatching tank didn't need to be moved again, so that I could setup on seperate air/water/light, so that the food colonies could get started, etc.)


Got the bench made and in place, filled the tank and could have used a few more days, but found that the first shrimp had released it's eggs. I don't know if they hatched or just were not viable. I got the other shrimp, and it was still carring her eggs, and am sure they are viable, as I could see the eye spots forming in them. I moved the one with eggs to the hatching tank, if the first shrimp hatched the eggs, I only have a day or two to go.



The hatching tank is a 10g tank with a foam airlift filter in it, as the low flow should keep the water quality in good shape. At the moment I have a small amount of cheato in the tank to hopefully provide food for unknown zooplankton that I'm hoping is increasing in the tank, to provide food for the larve. I was really hoping to have some rotifers going by now, but that hasn't happened yet. I think I have some acceptable substitues ready however.

Well that is my updates for today, will keep you posted.
Chris

[cdemeritt]

a interesting note I just found

Individuals of Lysmata wurdemonni first mature in a male phase (MP) and then change to the external phenotype of females (female-phase=FP). The FPs retain the male gonadal system and function both as male and female (simultaneous hermaphrodites).

[cdemeritt]

Ok, well hatchout occured during the overnight. This means it is not 40 days, but only 7-10 days from the time you see eggs. now I'm wishing I had done some things differently, but each time is a learning experiance.

[ChilisREasy]

the 40 day period is for the hatchlings to fully grow into the size of adults..not to hatch from egg.

[ChilisREasy]

i should have made my explanation a little more clear..sorry dude.hope the other batch make's it.

[cdemeritt]

Well, assuming the hatch time was about midnight ( I have read that this is the usual time) the young shrimp are now approching 15 hrs old. When I first looked at them this morning at around 8am, the were about 1/8th inch long. I don't have a good was to confirm this, but no real matter, I believe that they have already preformed at least one molt.
My main concern is feeding. I was unable to aquire a rotifer or like sized food. my hope had been to, if not a rotifer culture, get a container of DT's oyster eggs. Greenwater I believe to be too small, a lot like dumping a bowl of fruity pebbles into a swimming pool, and expecting a child to get a full meal. I did have some "spray dried" phytoplanton, which has clumped a bit with age. but when crushed, appears to form approperate partical size. Decapulsated brine shrimp eggs are a little too big as yet, but hopefully by tomorrow, they'll be just right. Some of the articals I've read talk about using newly hatch BS and copepods for food.

Food sizes:
Nannochloropsis sp. : 2-20 microns
DT's Oyster Eggs : 40-50 microns
Rotifers : ~125 microns
Brine shrimp hatchlings: 500 microns

As I remember reading them.
Chris

[Twitterbait]

are you sure those are babies and not mysids?

[cdemeritt]

are you sure those are babies and not mysids?

Absolutely. No way mysids could be in this tank. I never bought mysids. Any or anything else for that matter that mysids could have hitchhiked in on, at least not in the last 3 months, and certainly not since setting up this tank. hard to see, harder to count, but estimate over 25 newbies, maybe more, appeared in the overnight.