Raising Sexy shrimp
- Thread starter LisaP
- Start date
kiltboy1675
New member
that is so cool
My Sexy Shrimp have eggs... what next?
My Sexy Shrimp have eggs... what next?
Lisa and Purplehaze...
Can you assist with some suggestions and preparation for my situation?
The 2 Sexies in my tank have been there for about 6 months (had 3 initially). They are in the main tank - 37 gallon with the following:
Fish - Coral Beauty, 2 True Percs, Jawfish, 3 Chromis, Yellow Goby.
Inverts - Snails and a Cleaner Shrimp
Coral - Lps (Hammers, Frogspawn, others), and softies (Zoos, leathers, etc.).
The female has been carrying eggs and just realized this past week. I'm noticing she is even larger the past 2 or 3 days. I'm attaching pics with her, but didn't get a clear shot of the eggs. I saw tonight that she was using some of her legs to move the eggs around - looks like a lot of eggs in there.
I'd like to attempt to do what you were successful in Lisa, but since my initial setup is different from yours (mine being in a main tank with a good deal of predators and yours in a smaller nano), I need some assistance in suggestions.
So far, I'm in the process of getting a spare 5 gallon hex tank ready. It will have a basic 10watt 50/50 coralife bulb. By tomorrow, I would have transferred water from my main tank into the 5 gallon and get the tank circulating with a powerhead.
So my issues to figure out...
The 5 gallon tank itself...
1. Am I fine just using the same tank water from the main to fill this up or should I also add some fresh mix of saltwater?
2. For circulation Lisa I read initially you used an air pump... did you keep this throughout?
3. Any benefit in me putting some live rock or substrate from my main tank in the 5 gallon?
4. Did you have a heater in your tank? In my condo, the temperature of the room is pretty stable, but I may still go ahead and put a heater. It's summer over here in Canada at the moment, so the concern right now is keeping the tank cool.
5. Anything else I should prep the tank for?
The Sexy Shrimp couple...
A. I haven't read up on the process of shrimp having babies, although I did have a time once in an old tank that my peppermint shrimp had babies swimming all over the tank, but it was when I woke up and there they were already swimming. Soooo... how does a shrimp, specifically the sexy shrimp have it's babies?...
- does it release all the eggs at once?
- do the eggs just fall down or float around?
- before the eggs start hatching/moving, how long would that be?
- would they be swimming around all over the tank towards the light from the beginning?
This is probably my main question for now because 1) I want to decide whether I remove Mama Shrimp before she releases the eggs to the 5 gallon away from the main tank... or 2) do I wait and hopefully be around when the babies start swimming and scoop them up as fast as possible before they are all eaten up.
My preference is the first choice and if I don't get any strong opinions within the next day or so in opposition to move Mama over to the safer tank, she's going into the 5 gallon. My concern is the stress to her, but that's the plan.
B. Is there any way to tell when the shrimp is very close to releasing her eggs? Lisa - did you know a few days prior that you were about the get all these babies swimming around?
Thanks for any feedback - Ron
My Sexy Shrimp have eggs... what next?
Lisa and Purplehaze...
Can you assist with some suggestions and preparation for my situation?
The 2 Sexies in my tank have been there for about 6 months (had 3 initially). They are in the main tank - 37 gallon with the following:
Fish - Coral Beauty, 2 True Percs, Jawfish, 3 Chromis, Yellow Goby.
Inverts - Snails and a Cleaner Shrimp
Coral - Lps (Hammers, Frogspawn, others), and softies (Zoos, leathers, etc.).
The female has been carrying eggs and just realized this past week. I'm noticing she is even larger the past 2 or 3 days. I'm attaching pics with her, but didn't get a clear shot of the eggs. I saw tonight that she was using some of her legs to move the eggs around - looks like a lot of eggs in there.
I'd like to attempt to do what you were successful in Lisa, but since my initial setup is different from yours (mine being in a main tank with a good deal of predators and yours in a smaller nano), I need some assistance in suggestions.
So far, I'm in the process of getting a spare 5 gallon hex tank ready. It will have a basic 10watt 50/50 coralife bulb. By tomorrow, I would have transferred water from my main tank into the 5 gallon and get the tank circulating with a powerhead.
So my issues to figure out...
The 5 gallon tank itself...
1. Am I fine just using the same tank water from the main to fill this up or should I also add some fresh mix of saltwater?
2. For circulation Lisa I read initially you used an air pump... did you keep this throughout?
3. Any benefit in me putting some live rock or substrate from my main tank in the 5 gallon?
4. Did you have a heater in your tank? In my condo, the temperature of the room is pretty stable, but I may still go ahead and put a heater. It's summer over here in Canada at the moment, so the concern right now is keeping the tank cool.
5. Anything else I should prep the tank for?
The Sexy Shrimp couple...
A. I haven't read up on the process of shrimp having babies, although I did have a time once in an old tank that my peppermint shrimp had babies swimming all over the tank, but it was when I woke up and there they were already swimming. Soooo... how does a shrimp, specifically the sexy shrimp have it's babies?...
- does it release all the eggs at once?
- do the eggs just fall down or float around?
- before the eggs start hatching/moving, how long would that be?
- would they be swimming around all over the tank towards the light from the beginning?
This is probably my main question for now because 1) I want to decide whether I remove Mama Shrimp before she releases the eggs to the 5 gallon away from the main tank... or 2) do I wait and hopefully be around when the babies start swimming and scoop them up as fast as possible before they are all eaten up.
My preference is the first choice and if I don't get any strong opinions within the next day or so in opposition to move Mama over to the safer tank, she's going into the 5 gallon. My concern is the stress to her, but that's the plan.
B. Is there any way to tell when the shrimp is very close to releasing her eggs? Lisa - did you know a few days prior that you were about the get all these babies swimming around?
Thanks for any feedback - Ron
LisaP
Premium Member
To Quiv,
I haven't had the time to raise another batch of shrimp, we are going away soon and it's hard enough to get somebody to feed my fish and take care of my tanks let alone having to deal with bbs and baby shrimp.
To Ron,
Sorry for the late reply. To try and answer your questions....
1. I used all parent tank water (and used parent water for subsequent water changes too).
2. Yep, used a simple air pump/air stones to provide circulation throughout to larval period (and beyond).
3. No don't put any rock in there or any other kind of substrate. Water changes are enough to keep the water quality high enough.
4. Yes my tank contained a heaterstat to keep the temps stable.
5. Nope not really. Although I should perhaps mention that the larval tank sides are covered with black cardboard to cut out side lighting. I'm not sure if this is as important for shrimp as it is for baby fish but the tank was already covered so I left it be.
As for 'mummy' shrimp, she will release the larvae in one go after the lights go out one evening. You need to be vigilant as to when this will be, a quick glance every evening after you notice her heavy with eggs. To capture the larvae shine a light at one end of the tank and simply scoop out the attracted babies. Take care here as the babies are quite fragile. Once the larvae are set up in a separate tank start feeding them with newly hatched baby brineshrimp and watch them grow.
To all,
One other interesting observation to note since my last posting. My 'baby' shrimp have begun to have babies of their own. How cool is that!! Sexually mature at 98 days old, neato! :smokin:
Regards
Lisa
I haven't had the time to raise another batch of shrimp, we are going away soon and it's hard enough to get somebody to feed my fish and take care of my tanks let alone having to deal with bbs and baby shrimp.
To Ron,
Sorry for the late reply. To try and answer your questions....
1. I used all parent tank water (and used parent water for subsequent water changes too).
2. Yep, used a simple air pump/air stones to provide circulation throughout to larval period (and beyond).
3. No don't put any rock in there or any other kind of substrate. Water changes are enough to keep the water quality high enough.
4. Yes my tank contained a heaterstat to keep the temps stable.
5. Nope not really. Although I should perhaps mention that the larval tank sides are covered with black cardboard to cut out side lighting. I'm not sure if this is as important for shrimp as it is for baby fish but the tank was already covered so I left it be.
As for 'mummy' shrimp, she will release the larvae in one go after the lights go out one evening. You need to be vigilant as to when this will be, a quick glance every evening after you notice her heavy with eggs. To capture the larvae shine a light at one end of the tank and simply scoop out the attracted babies. Take care here as the babies are quite fragile. Once the larvae are set up in a separate tank start feeding them with newly hatched baby brineshrimp and watch them grow.
To all,
One other interesting observation to note since my last posting. My 'baby' shrimp have begun to have babies of their own. How cool is that!! Sexually mature at 98 days old, neato! :smokin:
Regards
Lisa
Thanks for the response Lisa.
It looks like I will have to wait for the next round of eggs to attempt this. I believe I missed everything by one night. The next day after I posted and transferred mama to the smaller tank with papa, there were no more eggs I could see. As much as I stayed up the night prior getting the smaller tank ready, I believe in the few hours I slept is when she released her eggs. With the predators in my tank, I don't think they would have lasted even an hour.
So... patience again as it always is in this hobby. I believe I read that it will take about 20-30 days for the next round of eggs??? Can someone clarify this?
I'll update if down the road if there's any new progress.
Ron
It looks like I will have to wait for the next round of eggs to attempt this. I believe I missed everything by one night. The next day after I posted and transferred mama to the smaller tank with papa, there were no more eggs I could see. As much as I stayed up the night prior getting the smaller tank ready, I believe in the few hours I slept is when she released her eggs. With the predators in my tank, I don't think they would have lasted even an hour.
So... patience again as it always is in this hobby. I believe I read that it will take about 20-30 days for the next round of eggs??? Can someone clarify this?
I'll update if down the road if there's any new progress.
Ron
Hello Lisa, I saw your thread a couple of months ago and decided to buy some sexy shrimp for myself and try it. About a month ago, bought nine sexy shrimp and it turns out I have 8 females and one male. I just found this out tonight as I was looking for a fish that went missing on saturday. I was shinning a flashlight and four of my sexy shrimp have eggs. How does it work? She releases the eggs or they hatch inside of her and then she releases them. I thought I saw something shoot out of her and start wiggling around the tank, as she arranged the eggs with her legs.
Thanks for the help.
Thanks for the help.
Here's a couple of pics. I haven't figured out what I am going to do. I went out to buy some brine eggs and a fish net breeder. I am going to be out of town for two weeks so I if I have the net suspended in the tank, I can have my girlfriend through some brine eggs in the net, so I don't have to worry about her killing everything with a water change. Will the brine shrimp hatch in the tank, or do I have to aerate it in fresh water then add them to tank?
Congrats rbdesigns!!!
Did you catch the babies from the main tank or did you place the parents in that plastic bin/container while the babies where born? What container is that they are in at the moment?
As for the BBS, it would be more ideal to hatch them seperately than in the same water with the Sexy shrimp. Maybe you can try and split the sexy babies in half in another container so that you don't risk all of them if you try the method with the BBS in the net.
Good luck w/ getting them to adulthood and keep posting the progress.
Ron
Did you catch the babies from the main tank or did you place the parents in that plastic bin/container while the babies where born? What container is that they are in at the moment?
As for the BBS, it would be more ideal to hatch them seperately than in the same water with the Sexy shrimp. Maybe you can try and split the sexy babies in half in another container so that you don't risk all of them if you try the method with the BBS in the net.
Good luck w/ getting them to adulthood and keep posting the progress.
Ron
I took the females out before they let go of the eggs. The container was too small and the females died with the babies. I messed up hatching the BBS in the same container as them. I have a couple of females almost ready to give birth too, but I won't be able to raise them because I live to Europe tomorrow morning. When I get back I will try again and set up a 10 gallon tank for all of them, so I don't have to try to remove them from the display tank.
Just re-reading this thread and I thought of another possibility to the timing. With clownfishes, one way to try and induce spawning is to release BBS into the water for a few days to act as a plankton bloom. Hundreds of baby shrimp could also appear the same way..
Interesting thread. I got the "Raise and Train You Peppermint" book for Christmas, and I've watched this thread for a while. Have a pair of sexy shrimp and would love to try this...
