Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
I don't have photos as their as small as copepods, but my female hymenocera picta released her eggs last night! I managed to save a few with a net and currently am atempting to keep them alive alteast until they can hunt for stars.
I don't believe too many people have succeeded in this and here's why:
1: food source, when harlequin shrimp are newborn, they are free floating rather than walking around so they do not eat starfish right away, this can be problematic as no body really knows what to feed them exactly.. and know when it's time for stars.
2: Filteration, sometimes you kill them by feeding them! You can't have the proper filteration a normal reef tank has.. even little microbubbles are a threat and can kill them making maintaining oxygen in the water near impossible to keep up with. Water flow from powerheads are too strong and will likely kill them on impact against glass walls flying at high speeds.
3: Expense, ok this part isn't that bad but first thing people think about is how to feed 300 baby harlequin shrimp starfish and keep their home at the same time.. any store bought stars are too big and I'm sure any baby harlys can find other homes before you get that far anyway. This is an irrelevant reason not to atempt growing them but it definitly discourages many from trying.
Now going to back to problem 1.. I already have that problem solved! Luckily for me I have a massive population of asterina starfish thriving in my 30 gallon.. so I'll just house a majority of them with the new borns and they can take them on whenever they decide to. I also believe I've discovered what they can eat during their free floating stage!! With a magnefying glass.. I watched a little one nibbling on some marine snow I dump in there! So the food part is one major issue taken care of!
Now for filteration.. I'm still a little stumped on this.. but I'm going to have to improvise...
I'm thinking with a combination of Amquel (ammonia detoxicfier), and a single mangrove seedling (plants which soaks up nitrates like a pro! They're restricted in many states sadly.) I'll be able to keep their enviroment unpolluted long enough before a real tank. As for oxygenation, I'm going to get a single PVC pipe, silicone it air tight to the bottom of the holding tank, cut slits at the top of the pipe like an overflow box kinda.. and place an air stone down in it so any free floaters won't get any major impact with the bubbles as the bubbles would be to big to fit through the slits... and the shrimp won't go down in there as the little bit of flow would push them away gently.
I'm excited to see how far and well this goes for me. To add another little twist to all this.. while the female hymenocera is indeed a picta.. the MALE hymenocera is actually an Elegans!! Two different species just bred and had babies!! I'd like to see how they turned out if maybe there was some change in coloration, new adaptations, etc, etc. I don't know how the classifaction system works exactly whether these just be different subspecies or if I created and entirely new species.. but nonetheless, I'll record any news on these guys!
This is day 1 after birth and the only thing to report is they're eating marine snow, and I observed them offically eating it through a magnefying glass.
I do not own the video below, but here's what the larvae look like (except mine are more brown)
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uORnnl3SFi4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I don't believe too many people have succeeded in this and here's why:
1: food source, when harlequin shrimp are newborn, they are free floating rather than walking around so they do not eat starfish right away, this can be problematic as no body really knows what to feed them exactly.. and know when it's time for stars.
2: Filteration, sometimes you kill them by feeding them! You can't have the proper filteration a normal reef tank has.. even little microbubbles are a threat and can kill them making maintaining oxygen in the water near impossible to keep up with. Water flow from powerheads are too strong and will likely kill them on impact against glass walls flying at high speeds.
3: Expense, ok this part isn't that bad but first thing people think about is how to feed 300 baby harlequin shrimp starfish and keep their home at the same time.. any store bought stars are too big and I'm sure any baby harlys can find other homes before you get that far anyway. This is an irrelevant reason not to atempt growing them but it definitly discourages many from trying.
Now going to back to problem 1.. I already have that problem solved! Luckily for me I have a massive population of asterina starfish thriving in my 30 gallon.. so I'll just house a majority of them with the new borns and they can take them on whenever they decide to. I also believe I've discovered what they can eat during their free floating stage!! With a magnefying glass.. I watched a little one nibbling on some marine snow I dump in there! So the food part is one major issue taken care of!
Now for filteration.. I'm still a little stumped on this.. but I'm going to have to improvise...
I'm thinking with a combination of Amquel (ammonia detoxicfier), and a single mangrove seedling (plants which soaks up nitrates like a pro! They're restricted in many states sadly.) I'll be able to keep their enviroment unpolluted long enough before a real tank. As for oxygenation, I'm going to get a single PVC pipe, silicone it air tight to the bottom of the holding tank, cut slits at the top of the pipe like an overflow box kinda.. and place an air stone down in it so any free floaters won't get any major impact with the bubbles as the bubbles would be to big to fit through the slits... and the shrimp won't go down in there as the little bit of flow would push them away gently.
I'm excited to see how far and well this goes for me. To add another little twist to all this.. while the female hymenocera is indeed a picta.. the MALE hymenocera is actually an Elegans!! Two different species just bred and had babies!! I'd like to see how they turned out if maybe there was some change in coloration, new adaptations, etc, etc. I don't know how the classifaction system works exactly whether these just be different subspecies or if I created and entirely new species.. but nonetheless, I'll record any news on these guys!
This is day 1 after birth and the only thing to report is they're eating marine snow, and I observed them offically eating it through a magnefying glass.
I do not own the video below, but here's what the larvae look like (except mine are more brown)
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uORnnl3SFi4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
