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-   -   Pregnant Peppermint Shrimp had its BABIES!!!!! (https://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1284424)

Tennyson 01/02/2008 05:56 PM

Pregnant Peppermint Shrimp had its BABIES!!!!!
 
My pregnant peppermint shrimp finally had her babies!!!! I forgot to check on them this morning so I think a couple died, but I was surprised to find out, when I came back, nine hours later, about 50 or more babies were still alive. I wasn't really prepared, so I fed them crushed mysid shrimp. The shrimp actually ate it!!! They seem to like it and are all haning on to big chunks of shrimp, picking at it. The mysid shrimp is perfect, because you would usually think that it would sink to the bottom and rot, but somehow, tiny bubbles get into the mysid shrimp, and keep it afloat, letting the shrimp babies feed on it.

keithntracy 01/02/2008 09:59 PM

awww...any chance of some pics??? good luck with your new babies :)

Tennyson 01/03/2008 07:18 PM

Well, they are really really small, about 2 mm long. Its hard to take pictures unless i had a really strong light for the camera. I'll keep trying though.

Anyway, its been about one day since they have hatched, and they are doing great! They seem to prefer mysid shrimp over baby brine shrimp (frozen). Since this morning, there eyes became huge and are on big stalks.

I have only fed them mysid shrimp so far, but tonight I will try live brine shrimp.

Tennyson 01/04/2008 08:48 PM

It has been about 2 1/2 days since the babies have hatched now, and about 15 or less have died off, but the rest seem to be doing okay with the mysid shrimp. I have started to cut the mysid up so the peps can eat it better.

I started a batch of brine shrimp, and they should hatch in hte next day. I think that it will improve the growth of the peppermint babies.

Tennyson 01/05/2008 05:19 PM

This is the 3rd day since they have hatched and they are doing great!The brine shrimp that I hatched are incredible! They make a huge difference for the shrimp. I was starting out by feeding them frozen mysid shrimp, but the live brine shrimp is like 10 times better. I never saw the baby peppermint shrimp eat it, but when I checked up on them three hours later, about 4/5 of them had pink bellies of brine shrimp!!! Its amazing to see 40 baby peppermint shrimp all huddled up and energetic from the brine, they are literally swimming around twice as much as the ones that haven't had any live brine. It just goes to show, that live food is better.

Anyway, the baby peppermints changed for the third time. There already big eyes have grown small black pupils and it is much easier to see their outline, it has gained more color. They are now about 3-4 mm long, but still not big enough to take pictures of.

(I will be updating this every 1-2 days on the status of the baby peppermint shrimp)

Tennyson 01/05/2008 07:46 PM

I am able to get a picture of the 3 day old shrimp babies, its just there isn't enough light. If I use my original tank, T-5 lighting, do you think that would be good for the shrimp, you know, being really bright and all? I think the bright light would burn the shrimps eyes out since they have really big eyes now. Any ideas on how to take pictures, I think if I did get a pic of them at this age? I'd be the first one, because I have only seen pictures of month old peps.

Thanks

Tennyson 01/06/2008 09:41 AM

Its been three and a half days since hatching and the shrimp babies have changed their form yet again! I think they molt every day or so, something I read from an article for caring for baby peps. Anyway, they now have about 4 or more legs that are really noticeable. They have been doing great living off the live brine shrimp.

Deyoe1118 01/06/2008 11:00 AM

pics...pics...pics...congrats :)

Tennyson 01/06/2008 06:12 PM

Its been four days since they have hatched and they are doing great. I don't think that I have lost any since the day they were born and I forgot about them

They have changed their form ...again. Their antennas are visible now and they are about 4-6 mm long. They eat the brine shrimp, Its just that they don't chase after it long. They'll see it pass by them and chase after them for less than a second and give up. But they still eat brine that swims right to them which happens alot when they are all gathered around the light.

Sorry I have no pictures, It must be pretty boring, reading me describing them. I actually have some pictures of them, really bad ones, but htey exceed the maximum file size, so me and my dad are working on that.

dadonoflaw 01/07/2008 12:37 AM

difficult to take pics of objects that size especially in a low light environment. you are lucky though my fish would have killed them on day one. anthias are pretty though

Tennyson 01/08/2008 04:32 PM

Oh, well I seperated the female the day I saw her with a clutch of eggs to avoid having the babies eaten. Also, removing them with a net breaks parts of their body.

Well its been about six days since they were born and today, the shrimp changed again. I read that they change around 62 times before they become mature. This time, they grew long little arms that I think are their claws. They are sort of pickish red. I think about 10 died since they were all born (not counting the 40 ones that died from when I forgot about them the morning they were born).

rappo 01/08/2008 04:39 PM

This is pretty exciting, even from just reading the description and not seeing images. Have you tried an image host like [url]http://imageshack.us[/url] ? It's easy to use and you don't have to sign up.

Tennyson 01/09/2008 06:41 PM

OK, that sounds like a good idea. I should be able to post them soon.

But first, the baby peppermint shrimp are doing well. I think only 5 or less have died, probably from not getting enoung food, becasue something weird is going on with the new batch of brine shrimp I started.

Its been a week now since they have hatched. And they have gotten alot better at swimming and seem to be more eager to eat (about 5 hang on and pig-out on one piece of crushed mysid) They are about 5 mm long. Their antennae are getting bigger, same with their legs. They also grew little red pichers that dangle around. I don't think that they use them yet. They are gaining more color, though not much, mostly in the belly, claws, adn especially the tails.

keithntracy 01/09/2008 08:28 PM

Very cool!!!

Tennyson 01/10/2008 06:58 PM

Its now been 8 days since the shrimp have hatched and I'm starting to get worried. The second brine shrimp batch that I started still hasn't hatched for some unknown reason, and the first batch has only a little more brine shrimp that aren't enought to feed all the baby peppermints. So I'm going to get rid of the second batch and start a new one. I'll have to feed the babies on crushed mysid, which they are Ok with, but it's barely as good as live brine.

Also, the female in my original tank has been pregnant for about 4-6 days and is going to have babies around Monday or so.

The baby peppermints eyes also move closer to eachother during the night, and when the lights come on, the eyes turn back to the same, side eyed look.

I think that I lost another baby, when I clean the tank in the morning, I always find one or two dead babies, probably because of my shortage of live brine shrimp. Its frustrating.

I think that the hardest part of raising the baby peppermints is changing the water and feeding them, otherwise, they get a 4 out of ten in dificulty for caring.
Changing the water is hard because whenever I add some water in, it blows all the shrimp away, probably breaking off some parts of their body (I think I'm lucky, none have broken limbs). I try to use a turkey baister (which helps so much) but when I'm replacing water, It's still difficult not to harm them.

RumLad 01/11/2008 08:37 AM

Would it be possible for you to run a sort of drip line into the baby's tank so that the water is constantly being changed, slowly, instead of all at once? maybe this would be easier on the fry.
You could have one piece of airline tubing witha siphon taking water out, and another putting water in. Like a drip acclimator. Just an idea maybe.

greenbean36191 01/11/2008 01:59 PM

Are you sterilizing the brine shrimp hatchery between batches? If you don't you can get poor hatch rates from bacteria or protozoans that contaminate the culture. Just rinse the hatchery with water and a capful of bleach and then rinse it all thoroughly a few times before you restart the culture.

Tennyson 01/11/2008 03:32 PM

well, I figured out why the brine shrimp haven't hatched. The heater broke and the water was about 85 degrees, its pretty hard to believe that this passed without being noticed. But the shrimp should be able to bear with it for now and live off the mysid shrimp, which I have been surprisingly succesful with.

Since the photos of the baby peppermint are extremely low quality, I have been trying to fix it up with a photoshop on the computer, otherwise, all you'd see is a big blur with two white dots staring at you (the eyes which are very big compared to the size of their body).

Tennyson 01/11/2008 08:43 PM

Pictures Are Here!
 
Great News everybody, I have finally finished photoshopping the pictures of my week old peppermint shrimp babies and the mother which is going to have another batch of babies around this Monday. The pictures quality isn't that great, but you can sort of make something out of it.

Heres the week old image with description:
[url]http://img167.imageshack.us/my.php?image=finishedshrimpbabyphotopu7.jpg[/url]

Same thing but with no description and outline of shrimp (Not as good as above one, but helps you see the outline better):
[url]http://img167.imageshack.us/my.php?image=finishedshimpbabyphotofwe6.jpg[/url]

Four day old pregnant Peppermint Shrimp (notice her clutch of light green to brown eggs which are still developing, the day she gives birth, they are swallen adn whitish yellow):
[url]http://img167.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1190928forreefcentralal4.jpg[/url]

Hope these are satisfactory pictures, sorry they are so late, low lighting makes it really hard to take good pictures. I should be able to come up with some new pictures every 3-6 days.


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