Shimp larval, how to raise!

[Gordonious]

I have two purple or blue coral banded shrimp (Stenopus tenuirostris). Ok technically if you count larval you might say I now have 50+ blue coral banded shrimp(Stenopus tenuirostris). What do I do with these larval? I pulled them out with a little brine shrimp net and put them in a little tub. I am now thinking about setting up a ten gallon tank for them.

I put an aqua clear quick filter power head attachment on the tank the shrimp are in for the ones I have not been able to scope up. There is also no protein skimmer or filter in the that tank.

Do the little ones need light or better with just room lighting? What temp should I aim for? Same water parameters as the tank their parents are in or should I change the salinity at all?

Please let me know. Any comments and advice are welcome. As I said in my <A HREF="http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1016648">other thread</A> I know the odds are slim I will be able to keep them alive, but I want to try and perhaps learn from my mistakes for next time.

Jon

 

[Gordonious]

Is it possible to get a moderator to change the title of this thread to "SH<U>R</U>IMP larval, how to raise! " lol

 

[Galilean]

http://www.lysmatapublishing.com/shrimp.html
How To Raise & Train Your Peppermint Shrimp

I recommend reading this book on raising shrimp larvae for general information. I used a modification of this technique to raise peppermint shrimp.

http://educacion.uanl.mx/publicaciones/maricultura/vi/pdf/A18.pdf

Note that (link above) coral banded shrimp have a much longer larval phase but this is strongly dependant on diet. If the shrimp larvae can get a lot of high quality food easily their time to meta can be cut in half. Whereas if they are just barely making it time to meta may double.

As with raising larval fish, excellent water quality, and the absence of parasites or disease is also critical.

I don't know if the shrimp larvae need strong lighting, but it is noteworthy that in nature they would float near the surface of the water and thus recieve strong lighting. This may just be because their food is located at the surface however. This is all because the base of the plankton chain is phyto.

 

[Gordonious]

I learned already that these little guys are like brine shrimp as in how they worship light. I have a lamp on the side of the tank their parents are in and they all migrated that way. Then when I removed some of them and put them in a small container on my desk they all moved towards the desk lamp. Since I was out earlier I picked up some of DT's premium reef blend hoping I would find the mix of phyto and algae would be good in my reading and it would save me a trip back to the store. I thought about picking up some oyster eggs as some of my other animals would like them as well, but when I saw the price I decided against it.
Thanks for the info Galilean. I'll be doing my reading this weekend and next time I will be all ready. I would be sooo happy if I could raise a single one of these, but doubt I'll have such luck the first time around.

Jon

 

[Gordonious]

Any quick advice on where to keep them. I've got them sitting in a little container outside the tank right now and want to get them in a bigger container, but not sure what yet. 10gallon tank with the same water? Glass bottom? Marbles on the bottom? Sand?

Jon

 

[Galilean]

Just as with maintaining aquariums in general there are many strategies. Generally for larvae you have a trade-off in the size of the box. A small box makes it easier to achieve the required food densities, but a larger box dilutes the polution longer between water changes. You can get the best of both worlds by having the larvae in a large established tank, but contained in a breeder net lined with a fine mesh that will concentrate their food. Baby freshwater fish have been raised in this manner for many decades but mysteriously breeders of saltwater creatures have failed to transfer the technique.

Of course getting enough micron filter material to cover a breeder net with enough area for a lot of larvae may cost you some $$. A larger material size might be obtained by going outside the aquarium industry to look for a big brine shrimp net used to capture them in the wild.

Or you might use a larger larvae tank and use light to concentrate the larvae and food at the surface. This is how it is done naturally in the ocean.

Also keep in mind that shrimp larvae don't like fast currents. They are not designed to spend much energy swiming and do best when the food density is high enough that they can just reach out and grab food with minimal effort.

You will find that it is fascinating to see each new larval structure develop as they mature. Their behavior will also change. Although these creatures have practically no brain, I have found that they can learn up to and including eating flake food larger than themselves and taking advatange of corners (never found in their natural enviornment) to help trap live prey. Learned hunting techniques take time however and if you do not provide their instinctual prey to get them started they will die before they learn.

 

[Gordonious]

Do you think this would be large enough to fashion a breeder out of? http://cgi.ebay.com/10x8-Large-TROP...oryZ3212QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I had more larval show up today. Currently they are just sitting in a little 1quart container.

 

["Umm fish?"]

I would look for something a lot larger. Remember, you want something the larvae can live in for a while.

You could make something out of something like this if you can find it: http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/1310

You could also try some sort of filter sock from the fish store, placed inside and siliconed to a breeder net for structure.

FWIW, I found some nylon "wedding dress liner" material at a local fabric store for $3.50/square yard. This is the stuff Eric Borneman recommends for catching coral larvae on a budget. It's certainly fine enough to hold shrimp larvae and food (rotifers wouldn't pass through). It's certainly cheaper than the 38um polyester screen at $40/square yard.

Good luck!

 

[Gordonious]

I've decided I'm going to dive into this and give it a shot. I'm going to have my Mom dig around for some wedding dress liner as Andy suggested. I'm going to construct a holding box and just throw my shrimp in there and when they have the young I will throw the parents out into the main tank.

I am going to construct 2-3 of these boxes inside of a 30 that is attached to my system and keep an eye out for pairs of other species of shrimp and give a couple of species a shot.

Tomorrow I am going to try to construct the boxes with out the fabric, or at least attempt to build them so I can start planning and I am also going to try to research ways to culture phyto, rotifers, artemia(sp. brine shrimp), and copepods. I know how to do all of them just would like to look at doing it larger scale efficiently. I may try to find some aquaculture photos to see how others have done it. I have seen larger systems, but not paid enough attention to replicate them.

Wish me luck, I'm going to give it a shot.

Jon

 

[dendro982]

I had seen netted breeders boxes in LFS, and DIY version on the web - the plastic basket, with sides cut off, so only the edges were left, and all of this covered outside by some mesh.

 

[Gordonious]

Please let me know if you come across it again.

JOn

 

["Umm fish?"]

You might also try one of those plastic pots that are used for pond plants. They have many, many tiny slits for water movement. Then just silicone some mesh down on the inside.

Good luck!