Raising mysid shrimp

taylorjonl · Apr 26, 2017

I am planning a large tank build with a fish room. In the fish room I wanted to experiment with raising live foods for the tank. So I bought the "Plankton Culture Manual" and started reading. In the book they describe raising various zooplanktons, most seem pretty simple except the mysid shrimp. Mysid shrimp are cannibals so generally require a lot of work. They did describe the following system that makes it a bit easier:

The way the system works is there are two chambers, the right chamber will hold the broodstock, the left will hold the juveniles. This is a 40 gallon breeder with a glass pane in the middle. There is a bulkhead in the pane with a 300-500u screen(purple) that allows water and the food source to pass while blocking adults from getting into the left side. Water is moved from the right chamber to the left chamber via an air lift pump with a 700-800u screen(blue) which should safely transfer the small fry from the adult side to the juvenile side.

Has anyone tried this? Do you use another method?

jmerideth1 · Apr 26, 2017

Following. I've been planning too breed mysis for awhile, but have been pouring $$$$ into my aquarium and haven't had the time and cash too even attempt it.

taylorjonl · Apr 27, 2017

Thinking about the long term, after time the juveniles will grow out and become the new broodstock, correct? So it might be nice if the left chamber can become the new broodstock chamber? So I am thinking about trying to make it easy to make this happen.

Another problem I am trying to solve is how to make it easy to maintain. I am talking about the end game, to make this work I need to maintain some phytoplankton and hatch brine shrimp.

In the end I am trying to make my whole system stack in the following rack:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Muscle-Rack-36-W-x-18-D-x-72-H-Five-Shelf-Steel-Shelving-Black/35584046

I was hoping to have three shelves occupied by 40 breeders, two of those being redundant mysid culture systems.

taylorjonl · Apr 28, 2017

So I setup and leveled the shelf. I am currently leak testing the two 40g breeders. Here is what it looks like so far:

The tanks are right next to my basements drain so it should be easy to do water changes. I am hoping to use the top two shelves for hatching brine shrimp and culturing phytoplankton. For now I will probably use one tank for raising mysids, the other tank I may grow a mixture of copepods/amphipods/rotifiers.

The shelf is supposed to be rated at 4k pounds, about 800 pounds per shelf. It has two sections, the top and the bottom. I only put the tanks on the bottom, no way I would trust putting 800 pounds on the top section. Even just using the bottom has me sorta nervous, if I am successful at raising mysids I will build a more sturdy stand than this one.

taylorjonl · Apr 29, 2017

So the tank/stand passed the leak test but it didn't pass the pest test. Can someone help me identify this pest? I think it is some sort of land monkey.

Recently my nephew learned to not fear the stairs anymore. He also likes to climb on things and we are finding it impossible to keep him caged upstairs anymore. He is obsessed with the basement. So we moved his baby gate down at the bottom of the stairs, now he sits at the bottom of the stairs making noises trying to get me to let him into the basement. I keep forgetting to close the baby gate so the last two days he has gotten into the basement several times.

With how flimsy the shelf is and the fact that he likes to climb things I am afraid he is going to try climbing the shelf and tip it over on him. 900 pounds of water and glass vs. my nephew is not something I want to see so I have drained the tanks until I reevaluate the situation. Maybe I will just build a nice shelf out of some 2x4s and plywood. I was hoping to not build a more permanent stand until I have a little experience with raising mysids since experience will likely influence its design.