Peppermint Shrimp are carrying eggs. How to...

[BamaCoastPyrat]

About two weeks ago I bought three peppermint shrimp and 5 astrea snails and places them in a 29 gallon quarantine tank for a 76 day fallow period. I noticed a couple of days ago that 2 of the 3 peppermint shrimp are carrying a ton of eggs on their pleopods. How difficult is it to raise these peppermint shrimp once hatched? If it's doable, how do I raise them?

 

[Hermie]

Ive raised amano from a single mother before and it was a difficult learning curve but eventually succeeded; you need lots and lots of phyto plankton. Like lots. Way more than one bottle.

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

Ive raised amano from a single mother before and it was a difficult learning curve but eventually succeeded; you need lots and lots of phyto plankton. Like lots. Way more than one bottle.

How much would all of that phyto cost?

Any other tips or a guide you ultimately followed?

 

[Wolf89]

How much would all of that phyto cost?

Any other tips or a guide you ultimately followed?

I would recommend buying a gallon from @Eldredge . Ridiculously good quality and a great price

 

[Hermie]

How much would all of that phyto cost?

Any other tips or a guide you ultimately followed?

I had a 10 gallon phyto tank setup and running with a sponge filter for weeks before the fry were introduced, so it only cost me one bottle plus time to set up everything and the tank/accessories. You don't have to buy the phyto but it does need to be live. No guides I followed I did it on my own there was very little information available. But it's basically just setting up a tank with a healthy happy phytoplankton population and then introducing the fry. I did add ferts to the water to help grow the microalgaes that the phyto eat and then the fry eat the phyto.

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

I had a 10 gallon phyto tank setup and running with a sponge filter for weeks before the fry were introduced, so it only cost me one bottle plus time to set up everything and the tank/accessories. You don't have to buy the phyto but it does need to be live. No guides I followed I did it on my own there was very little information available. But it's basically just setting up a tank with a healthy happy phytoplankton population and then introducing the fry. I did add ferts to the water to help grow the microalgaes that the phyto eat and then the fry eat the phyto.

If I buy a gallon of phyto from @Eldredge, can I put it in the tank with the adult peppermints? Or will they eat all of the phyto before the fry hatch?

When the fry hatch, do I need to remove the adults from the tank? Will the snails bother anything?

 

[DaJMasta]

I haven't raised peppermints, but they're in the Lysmata genus like skunk and fire cleaners, and both of those will not survive on phytoplankton.... at all. They need appropriately sized zooplankton, likely live.

I've heard of it being done with artemia nauplii, which is probably the simplest unless you already have live foods in culture, but artemia don't have as much nutritional value as copepods, so the survival rate may be lower than on other kinds of food.

I've had limited success with other lysmata shrimp using seived copepods, feeding smaller than 250um sized nauplii and adults, and somewhat better success (almost 3 weeks of growth) with artemia nauplii hatched twice a day, but I'm also working in a very small space and have run into other problems - a dedicated tank with almost no flow is probably the best starting point. Make sure the sides are totally dark and there is an always on dim light overhead (normal lights are fine, but they are strongly attracted to light, so one on in the dark helps a lot). Their first major zoea stage change should happen around day 3.

Worth mentioning: I've observed fire cleaner larvae grabbing onto artemia eggs like catching prey, so the movement of live food may not be as critical as with some sort of hunting species. Of course, they can't eat the egg in its shell, and they really don't hunt much, they just sort of wave their arms to their underside until their legs can grab onto something to eat, so if you were to try non-live food, you'd want something as neutrally buoyant as possible.

 

[Wolf89]

If I buy a gallon of phyto from @Eldredge, can I put it in the tank with the adult peppermints? Or will they eat all of the phyto before the fry hatch?

When the fry hatch, do I need to remove the adults from the tank? Will the snails bother anything?

No. You'll need a kreisell tank. Algaebarn has a decent writeup somewhere on raising peppermint shrimp

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

@DaJMasta thanks for all of that info. Algaebarn suggests freshly hatched brine shrimp. How often do they have to be hatched? Is a daily batch fine or do I need to be breeding multiple batches of brine per day?

No. You'll need a kreisell tank. Algaebarn has a decent writeup somewhere on raising peppermint shrimp

What in the world is a Kreisell tank??? Time for more googlin'.

I did find the article from algaebarn

Breeding Peppermint Shrimp

Peppermint shrimp, or Candy Cane shrimp, are one of the most popular ornamental shrimp within the aquarium trade. In fact, they are so popular that they

www.algaebarn.com

 

[Big Smelly fish]

I don’t know anything about raising shrimp, but do seahorse and clownfish.
I made some of my own Kreisell tanks out of 2 gallon fish bowls . It was needed for the type of seahorse fry I was raising at the time. Or at least what we thought back then. It’s basically a jellyfish tank. I drill holes in two sides of the bowl and place screen for seahorse fry. Smaller type fry you would have to use mesh to prevent them from getting out. I use a small pump in the aquarium to slowly pump water into the bowl to create a slow circular flow as some water leaves the bowl . It works very well.

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

I don’t know anything about raising shrimp, but do seahorse and clownfish.
I made some of my own Kreisell tanks out of 2 gallon fish bowls . It was needed for the type of seahorse fry I was raising at the time. Or at least what we thought back then. It’s basically a jellyfish tank. I drill holes in two sides of the bowl and place screen for seahorse fry. Smaller type fry you would have to use mesh to prevent them from getting out. I use a small pump in the aquarium to slowly pump water into the bowl to create a slow circular flow as some water leaves the bowl . It works very well.

Well dang, now I want to raise seahorses. Do you need the Kreisell tank for the clowns?

 

[sabeypets]

They can be raised on artemia nauplii in a Kreisell tank. To much flow/water turbulence will kill them. They go through metamorphous around 18-30 days depending on the spieces of "peppermint". I had the highest mortality rates at the last molt before settling out of the water column.

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

They can be raised on artemia nauplii in a Kreisell tank. To much flow/water turbulence will kill them. They go through metamorphous around 18-30 days depending on the spieces of "peppermint". I had the highest mortality rates at the last molt before settling out of the water column.

It's starting to sound like a Kreisell tank is necessary. Additional expenses on equipment beyond what I already have might be the nail in the coffin on this project.

 

[DaJMasta]

I don't know if it's totally required, I've kept lysmata larvae in zero flow containers for a couple of weeks before, while some current is helpful, if you can choose a vessel without hard corners and then offer very low flow (like a bubbler on a piece of hard airline tubing), you can probably have some luck so long as the sides are blacked out. Think something like a plastic plant pot, with slightly rounded inside edges on the bottom, that sort of shape with the bubbler down the middle. The harder part then becomes keeping it warm and at appropriate parameters without something the larvae can get stuck on.

In any case, providing the food, setting up the vessel, and adjusting things as you go will take some effort. It's fun to do (at least for me), but expect not to have success on your first or first few batches as you start figuring things out.

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

I don't know if it's totally required, I've kept lysmata larvae in zero flow containers for a couple of weeks before, while some current is helpful, if you can choose a vessel without hard corners and then offer very low flow (like a bubbler on a piece of hard airline tubing), you can probably have some luck so long as the sides are blacked out. Think something like a plastic plant pot, with slightly rounded inside edges on the bottom, that sort of shape with the bubbler down the middle. The harder part then becomes keeping it warm and at appropriate parameters without something the larvae can get stuck on.

In any case, providing the food, setting up the vessel, and adjusting things as you go will take some effort. It's fun to do (at least for me), but expect not to have success on your first or first few batches as you start figuring things out.

Well that sounds a little more doable. Thank you. How about a 10 gallon brute trash can with lid and a bubbler line attached in the correct position to push a little circular current?

Is there such a thing as too hot? I assume so. My saltwater mixing station in my garage maintains 85-90 degrees this time of year. Or I could keep it inside with a small heater.

Onto the food, do I have to have brine hatching multiple times a day? Or, would one batch hatching each day give me small enough brine to feed to the peppermint fry?

 

[DaJMasta]

You'll have to experiment for the specifics, but if your container has rounded edges on the bottom, a single bubble line in the center, maybe 2/3 of the way down or so, should generate a donut shaped flow - an upwelling in the center around the bubbles which then sweeps down the sides and turns around at the bottom.

85F is likely ok, but lower is probably better, you really want to be close to your tank temperature, but slightly elevated (80-82F) will probably give you slightly faster growth.

The problem with a single artemia hatch a day is that they are their most nutritious when they first hatch, as the yolk sack is used up, their nutritional value goes down, so while it may be possible once a day, twice a day (or even three times) is likely going to have more overall success.

A tiny amount of brine shrimp eggs will net a lot of artemia, though, a tenth of a teaspoon or less should be more than enough, so it's more about starting them twice a day than it is burning through a lot of them.

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

You'll have to experiment for the specifics, but if your container has rounded edges on the bottom, a single bubble line in the center, maybe 2/3 of the way down or so, should generate a donut shaped flow - an upwelling in the center around the bubbles which then sweeps down the sides and turns around at the bottom.

85F is likely ok, but lower is probably better, you really want to be close to your tank temperature, but slightly elevated (80-82F) will probably give you slightly faster growth.

The problem with a single artemia hatch a day is that they are their most nutritious when they first hatch, as the yolk sack is used up, their nutritional value goes down, so while it may be possible once a day, twice a day (or even three times) is likely going to have more overall success.

A tiny amount of brine shrimp eggs will net a lot of artemia, though, a tenth of a teaspoon or less should be more than enough, so it's more about starting them twice a day than it is burning through a lot of them.

Ok, that makes sense about the hatch timing on the shrimp. I can keep up with that, but when I'm at the fire department for 48 hours, there is zero chance my wife would be willing to do all of that when she is already dealing with 4 kids under 9 years old. So that being said, how fragile are these larvae? Is there any chance I could make a portable setup to take back and forth to the fire department, or is that just too crazy to attempt?

 

[Big Smelly fish]

Well dang, now I want to raise seahorses. Do you need the Kreisell tank for the clowns?

No , small tank like a ten gallon with the sides blacked out.

 

[Big Smelly fish]

Here is the type of set up I have now. Very easy to make and set up with a sump. I have found that using two tubs work best, especially if you want to do easy water changes. One tub for the fry and one tub to use for water changes. Not to disrupt the sump.

 

[Big Smelly fish]

Here is my thread on my seahorse fry.
I hope it may help you.
Time to share my seahorse fry

Time to share my seahorse fry.

Good morning all. I figured I would share a video of my seahorse fry. I have kept seahorses since my early days of reef keeping and had them in my first reef. They always amaze me . I’m no expert when it comes to them and in early 2000’s I started raising H reidi , they where a lot of work. I...

www.reef2reef.com