Keeping live mysis shrimp in tank

[LxHowler]

Hi, my LFS has had a shipment of live mysis shrimp and I was wondering, if I was to add them to my tank would they be able to survive as a food source for my fish, obviously I expect them to get eaten but would some be able to survive and populate the tank as a longer lasting food source if I acclimated them properly.
Sorry if this sounds stupid but I've only ever had frozen mysis

 

[New&no clue]

Do you have a refugium where some could hide and repopulate? I don't know much about mysis either but I know for pods you will need a place to hide out. I also feel like I read a thread on here about brine shrimp in the tank and it didn't work out too well.

 

[Softhammer]

Absolutely. As long as you have any live rock they’ll be fine. I have millions. They’re nocturnal so many more will survive than you think. I’d add them after dark though to give them a fighting chance.

 

[LxHowler]

Absolutely. As long as you have any live rock they’ll be fine. I have millions. They’re nocturnal so many more will survive than you think. I’d add them after dark though to give them a fighting chance.

That's good I have plenty of live rock that is filled with pods and I feed phytoplankton so my tank should be able to support them. Look forward to giving it a try now

 

[Patrick.S]

Aren’t mysis a freshwater species? I’ve been to the lake in British Columbia where PE harvests them. Mysid are salt but I’ve never heard of them being cultured.

 

[LxHowler]

Aren’t mysis a freshwater species? I’ve been to the lake in British Columbia where PE harvests them. Mysid are salt but I’ve never heard of them being cultured.

From what I have read I believe that the sort that you purchase as frozen food are the freshwater mysis, but the sort that you can buy live are the saltwater mysid variety that are sold under the same name mysis. Might be wrong but that is what my research has lead me to believe.

 

[andrewkw]

Mysis are indeed freshwater, you want MYSID shrimp. Also they are next to impossible to keep in large numbers. Sure you will always have some in your tank. I noticed 2 earlier this morning in my water change bucket, but to have them as a food supply you need many different tanks with different sized mesh so the babies can escape the adults. They are very very very hard to breed due to the fact they are extremely cannibalistic.

There are some seahorse related articles on breeding them. I explored doing it more then 10 years ago when I was keeping dwarf cuttlefish. It turned out to be much easier to just have weekly shipments sent to me. When I tried to keep them alive for 2 weeks it was quite a challenge as far as feeding them enough baby brine shrimp so they eat those instead of each other.

I can't recall if this was a 10 or 20 gallon tank, but at this density, they were difficult to keep alive :

 

[LxHowler]

Mysis are indeed freshwater, you want MYSID shrimp. Also they are next to impossible to keep in large numbers. Sure you will always have some in your tank. I noticed 2 earlier this morning in my water change bucket, but to have them as a food supply you need many different tanks with different sized mesh so the babies can escape the adults. They are very very very hard to breed due to the fact they are extremely cannibalistic.

There are some seahorse related articles on breeding them. I explored doing it more then 10 years ago when I was keeping dwarf cuttlefish. It turned out to be much easier to just have weekly shipments sent to me. When I tried to keep them alive for 2 weeks it was quite a challenge as far as feeding them enough baby brine shrimp so they eat those instead of each other.

This is what I thought. I'm not so much looking for them to populate the tank long term I was more looking for them to be in there for a few days so that my slower fish that hide or are nocturnal still have a chance to get some live food the same as my faster fish. I am happy to keep buying them say weekly to keep them in my tank, I just wanted to make sure they wouldn't die instantly when I added them.

 

[andrewkw]

You can keep small amounts if you feed a ton of baby brine or other food for a few days.

If you don't mind me asking how much is the store selling them? Are they wild caught or lab grown? I was paying close to $100 in shipping costs for mine back when I needed them..

 

[Nano sapiens]

Bare in mind that Mysid will:

1. Reduce your pod population through predation (although some will always survive).
2. Are nocturnal and fast, so slower fish won't likely catch many (if any).

I've had them for years, but rarely many. The only time I've had what might be called a swarm is when I had a large fish load and fed the aquarium heavily.

 

[dwest]

I’ve had lots of mysid shrimp and amphipods coexisting for many years. I don’t see copepods, so they may be a food source or maybe I just don’t see them.

 

[ca1ore]

FW versus SW is important LOL …. most (maybe all) of the frozen is actually FW sourced.

 

[LxHowler]

You can keep small amounts if you feed a ton of baby brine or other food for a few days.

If you don't mind me asking how much is the store selling them? Are they wild caught or lab grown? I was paying close to $100 in shipping costs for mine back when I needed them..

They are asking for £20 for what they say is 100 shrimp. From what I've seen online that seems about right for mysid shrimp. I only have a small population of fish so I figure 100 would be plenty for my tank

 

[Nano sapiens]

I’ve had lots of mysid shrimp and amphipods coexisting for many years. I don’t see copepods, so they may be a food source or maybe I just don’t see them.

The copepods are indeed a food source, while the typical Gammarus amphipods are large and aggressive enough to hold their own.

 

[2Sunny]

Once upon a time my tank was filled with the same shrimp seen here:


After treating for Red Bugs several times over the years these critters vanished. They used to be in every crack and crevice plus the overflows of my display and my 'fuge. Are you guys saying that mysid aren't a good food source for hunters like Mandarins, and are you also saying that somehow re-establishing a population of said critters (assuming the ones in the video are in fact mysid shrimp) is difficult? I'd really like to get them back even if it means they will eat my copepods.