Cleaner Shrimp Breeding

[Spikehs]

Hey,

I noticed today that one of my 2 cleaner shrimp is carrying of what looks like a mass of green eggs on its underside :) . I had a couple of questions about em. Since the eggs are there does that mean they are fertilized? or do femal shrimp just produce the eggs the whole time, even if there isn't a male around? Is is possible to raise the babies? if so can you point me in a direction that could help. THanks

[Guy]

The eggs are fertilized. They can store sperm for a few months. The larve are extremely difficult to raise.

HTH

Guy

FYI - They are hermaphrodites, but they cannot fertilize their own eggs.

[Spikehs]

Hey,

I was just talking to a guy at the lfs who said it IS possible to raise these babbies, he said all you need is like a 5gal tank with a sponge filter and some live rock. What do you guys think about this?

[Rick]

Sounds like the lfs wants to sell you a 5gal tank ,sponge filter,and some live rock ?
If you have any luck we'd all love to here .
give it a try . I'll buy some from you .

Rick

[Guy]

Yes, it CAN be done. As I said, it's extremely difficult :)

They tend to get damaged when they bump into an object (like the wall of the tank). I can usually get a few dozen up to the 6 week point and then they all die :(

Out of several attempts and thousands of larve I have 2 that I raised to adults... I'd consider that a failure....

[Breef]

I am pretty interested in these attempts. Is it possible that you kept any notes on them that you would be willing to share? I would like to give them a try,and getting that far I think there must be some way to succeed. Its a very helpful critter for the hobby and this would be a gain in the techniques arena.

[Spikehs]

Hey,

Although my cleaners were pregant virutally 24/7 i never had any time to bother raising them. From what i hear though you need greenwater, and when they get bigger feed em baby brine, but thats just what i heard and never verified that...check out breeders registry for more info..

[LiquidShaneo]

Guy: if they're kicking the bucket when they run into the wall, why don't you do what Joyce Wilkerson does with her clownfish rearing tanks: put black cardboard/construction paper on all the sides of the tank and leave the top of the tank open with a light over it to congregate them all at the surface. The blackened sides will keep the shrimp from thinking they can swim in that direction and the light will keep them focused at the surface of the water. Joyce in her book mentions that if she doesn't cover the sides of her tank that the clown fry run into the walls and die.

Shane
(aka "liquid")

[Breef]

Thats the kind of advice that is good,I knew some people who were raising black lace angel fish(fresh water) and to help they covered the sides of the tank with tint to keep these type of angels that are very spooky from being scaired. It worked like a charm.

[Guy]

LIQUID!! Great idea :) I'll give it a go and see what happens.

[ranaman]

Seems they have the spiny lobster problem a long planktonic stage, around three months. Interesting harlequin shrimp spend only 1-2 months as plankton. The longer a larvae stays as plankton the more likely things can go wrong. see http://www.nethawaii.net/~kraul/lysmata.html
Just a note a mix of baby brine and algae seems to get the best survival in commercial shrimp when given as first food. Then you could get rid of corners with circular tanks.