Live Mysis shrimp???

[revoohc]

I'm looking at possible setting up a seahorse tank. I have a 55 gallon that has a lot of live rock and a 3-4" sand bed that is over a year old. This tank is going to be plumbed into my 75 gallon reef system (I will be able to control the water flow in this system).

Anyway, in the reading I have been doing on keeping seahorses, I keep reading about feeding frozen mysis shrimp. Since these shrimp are fresh water shrimp, I am wondering if it is possible to get live mysis shrimp and raise them? I have a 75 gallon freshwater system that I could add them to to try them. Is this possible?

Thanks,

revoohc

[SeaNemesis]

Sure you can keep some live ones going, but I would keep them on a staple of frozen and use the live for treats and if you go out of town.

[ranaman]

Not all mysids are freshwater. There are many marine species. You can buy live mysis from http://www.biologylab.com this one prefers brackish to full strength sea water. There is a mysid that comes as a hitchhiker. Check fpr little shrimp swimming in invert systems at your LFS.
I found some info that there might be some info on culturing Mysis relicta in native fish buff bulletins but remember these are cold water critters like trout, the marine ones might be easier to culture.

[India]

I had quite a hard time culturing them...you buy them from bio houses because they are bred to test water quality - they are extremely sensitive to pollution levels...they are tiny and clear - very hard to see against sand...so, if a few die, the corpses are very tough to find, water quality starts to slide, and they all go.
They are cannabalistic, so babies must be removed and raised seperately...and the babies are cannabalistic, so you need at least 3 tanks to seperate the ages. Professionals raise them in bare tanks with cleaning and water changes every day...
They will fight if crowded, so you need aquascaping or glass shelves in the tank...I was designing a shelving system with automatic baby filtration, but it was a major pain in the neck...
They eat live baby brine shrimp...another step in the operation.
And each seahorse eats ALOT...they are much tinier than the PEMysis you see.
The Plankton Manual is the bestsource for live culture in general (available at Florida Aqua Farms
HTH
India