Pregnant Peppermint Shrimp

[ConnorTheSalty]

I just noticed that one of my peppermint shrimp has a belly-full of eggs, some even appear to be external on the abdomen. I was thinking and researching, and I figure that survival of the eggs to maturity is slim but, I was hoping to find some ways I could increase the survival rate in my 30g BioCube. Thoughts? Concerns? I appreciate any and all information. (tried to get the best picture I could)

Ex. Was wondering if turning off the lights, or any of the other items in the filtration/pump system would assist?

 

[NashobaTek]

There's a thread about breeding these shrimp on R2R

 

[NashobaTek]

How to breed Peppermint Shrimp

Hello everyone. I wasn't sure if this belonged in the invert forums or breeding, so I made this exact post in both. I have male and female peppermint shrimp who have been getting along well with their bottom-of-the-tank mates such as the cleaner shrimp, hermits, snails, hermit crab(an impulse...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[NashobaTek]

Breeding Peppermint Shrimp

Instructions on breeding peppermint shrimp.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[NashobaTek]

Breeding Peppermint Shrimp

Seawitch submitted a new Article: Breeding Peppermint Shrimp Peppermint shrimp. Photo is from the World Wide Corals website. ©2019, All Rights Reserved. Note from the Editor: The following breeding information was kindly furnished to us by @Sallstrom, who is a professional marine biologist...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ConnorTheSalty]

It looks like a lot of the information is pertaining to creating a new environment for them, or creating a system within the BioCube (which is not really feasible right now). I do have some buckets but, I dont really have the time or money to create a larvae bucket. I seriously doubt I would be able to before the eggs hatch. I will keep researching and reading through these threads/articles.

Thank you very much!

 

[ConnorTheSalty]

I wish I had a spare air pump, I think I could actually make a breeding environment if I did but, I would also need a food source for them.

One of the articles mentioned that the larvae would be attracted to light. I wonder if I were to place an LED on the outside of the glass, in an area that has low flow, lots of algae for them to eat, and keeps them away from the fish and filters, would it increase the survival rate?

If they are attracted to light, should I keep the main lights off for the tank for a few days, or a week?

Would that be ok for the fish and the mushroom coral to have no light for that long?

 

[vetteguy53081]

A night light would work perfect and energy efficient means

 

[marquitos]

I just noticed that one of my peppermint shrimp has a belly-full of eggs, some even appear to be external on the abdomen. I was thinking and researching, and I figure that survival of the eggs to maturity is slim but, I was hoping to find some ways I could increase the survival rate in my 30g BioCube. Thoughts? Concerns? I appreciate any and all information. (tried to get the best picture I could)

Ex. Was wondering if turning off the lights, or any of the other items in the filtration/pump system would assist?

(I wrote this earlier (mid May) to another member with a gravid peppermint shrimp...)
Hello, I have cultured marine shrimp (and a bit of Machrobrachium rosenbergii -- freswater) commercially for most of my life. Although I do not have experience culturing aquarium species, I think there are some commonalities with both. If you see that your female is gravid (carrying eggs), I would separate her (as gently as possible) and put her into a separate tank and into something similar to what is in the photo to allow the eggs and/or nauplii to separate themselves from momma - she will eat them. If she spawns eggs, they'll likely hatch in 24-48 hours and it is important to keep them up in the water column (an imhoff cone is good) with gentle aeration. You will also need some live phytoplankton ie, marine microalgae like chaetocerous, thalassiosira, dunaliela, or other single celled microalgae. Reed Mariculture sells live pastes of various species. This should take the newly hatched larvae through the first few days and then you'll need to start feeding them with small zooplankton like rotifers and then as the larvae grow, move them up to newly hatched, live artemia nauplii. Keep the microalgae in there throughout this time as the larvae, rotifers and artemia will be eating it. Be ready for mortalities as you'll likely have to learn through trial and error what exactly they need to be fed to get through their larval stages. Our marine larvae (Penaeus vannamei) went through 3 distinct larval stages before metamorphosis to Post Larvae (Nauplii, Zoea, Mysis and then PL's) and this took about 9-10 days. We would hold them for another 10-15 days before harvesting, packing and shipping them off to the shrimp farm grow out ponds. Good Luck!

 

[Blknovass]

I really have nothing to add but that is cool!

 

[ConnorTheSalty]

I set my Q tank like this (image below) with what I could get quickly, and that was before I saw the very helpful information quoted above. I am not sure if this will work, as I still need a food supply. I will try to make a trip to my LFS but, I was wondering if taking some of the rock out of the aquarium would at least give them something to eat off of until I can get better food source?

Should I just set up the air stone and heater in a 5 gallon bucket instead?

I will include a pic of the rocks I have available below.

 

[ConnorTheSalty]

Should I just drop the airstone into the BioCube, and turn off the pump? Will that have a better chance than trying to move the shrimp to the other tank and trying to find food for it (and possibly contaminating my Qtank) ?

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

One of my peppermints just released all her larvae tonight after hanging on to her eggs for a crazy long time! My tank is full of the little things. Really amazing sight to see and they're actually much bigger than I expected.

Looking forward to seeing how you do at raising peppermints. Sounds like a fun project!

 

[ConnorTheSalty]

Update: Woke up one morning to find that the shrimp had no more eggs and there was no visible change in the tank. I was not able to transfer them to a breeding environment as finding a method to do so with my limited time and funds was not within my capabilities. This was about 2-3 weeks back.

A couple days back, I found that that same shrimp has a belly full of eggs again, and so does the middle sized, of the three I have! The one that is not carrying eggs is the only one of the three to remain completely translucent throughout the few months I have had them.

My breeder tank is almost ready though... about to add my clowns to begin the cycle process, along with some MicroBacter7.


Updates to follow

 

[Robert Binz]

Excited for updates

 

[lilkiwi930]

Really dislike when people post a comment saying "well there's already an article on R2R". Like yes but maybe what he was looking for was not in that article. Maybe thats why he posted it.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Update: Woke up one morning to find that the shrimp had no more eggs and there was no visible change in the tank. I was not able to transfer them to a breeding environment as finding a method to do so with my limited time and funds was not within my capabilities. This was about 2-3 weeks back.

A couple days back, I found that that same shrimp has a belly full of eggs again, and so does the middle sized, of the three I have! The one that is not carrying eggs is the only one of the three to remain completely translucent throughout the few months I have had them.

My breeder tank is almost ready though... about to add my clowns to begin the cycle process, along with some MicroBacter7.


Updates to follow

My guys seem to have fallen into a two week or so cycle of hatching so hopefully yours find a regular schedule to make your job easier. Can't wait to hear more updates!

 

[ichthyogeek]

Looks like NashobaTek beat me to it! But yeah the article's a good way to do it! I'd also recommend checking out April Kirkendoll's "How to Raise and Train your Peppermint Shrimp". It's a chill read!

Also, a lot of the information I'm about to type is similar/duplicate to that found in the article/info that was already shared, but figured it might be useful in case somebody stumbles across this thread in the future:

Larval peppermints eating algae: Sorry, they hatch out carnivores, and ready to eat newly hatched baby brine shrimp (you can buy this online! I like BrineShrimpDirect for their large cans). If larval peppermints ate benthic algae, then we'd have a lot less problems in the hobby, and a lot more adult peppermints. That being said, it's always beneficial to have live microalgae in the growout container, since it helps sop up a lot of the excess nitrogen and increases oxygen content, etc. Adding a rock to the growout tank is a good idea, but keep in mind that these are fragile, pelagic shrimp. They don't like bumping into things until after they metamorphose.

Light-attraction: In science, we call it phototaxis , sunflowers are really good examples of it in non-animals. Larval peppermint shrimp aren't the strongest swimmers, but in the right conditions (low-non-existent flow), they'll be able to get to the light, which makes them easier to collect! That being said, turning the lights off on the tank for a day or two isn't going to affect survivability, since you have around 8-12 hours or so in order to collect the larvae before the currents in the tank kill them, they get eaten, or something happens.

Flow: Larval peppermint shrimp are incredibly weak. Like, super weak. They can't fight current for quite a while, so turning off the pump on hatch night will help in getting the larvae to where they need to be (which is another water container!)

Feedback on the setup tank: I like it, if you take out the sand and the blue cave thing! Just toss microbacter7 in the tank, and make sure the heater's indicator light is covered (phototactic larvae!). Depending on the tank's length and total gallonage, you could start off with the tank half full, so you can increase brine shrimp density without having to hatch out more brine shrimp! A bonus is that you can also help dilute waste in the tank by adding water in, versus taking water out and adding more water back in. Oh, and it should be a tank for only peppermint shrimp, no clownfish, no fish, literally nothing except for the peppermint shrimp.

 

[ConnorTheSalty]

Wanted to provide an update on a couple items.

I have not been able (yet) to focus on trying to increase the survival rate of the larvae but..... it seems that two of the shrimp are perpetually creating larvae. Over the last several weeks I may have only had one or two days where it was clear their abdomen was clear. Otherwise, they are constantly brimming with eggs.

To my horror the other day, I did witness what appeared to be the largest of the shrimp eating the eggs directly from their abdomen.