# Need primer on ghost shrimp babies & their care



## fishyface (Oct 7, 2004)

all good questions, i went through the same thing twice with mine. isolated them in the mesh breeder trap but nuthin' couldn't see anything once the eggs were released...kinds frustrating but i wish you luck and will watch this thread closely.


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## Dwarfpufferfish (May 29, 2004)

Okay let me start by saying that there are two species of ghost shrimp commonly available, one is 100% freshwater and the other are much like Amano shrimp and live their adult life in fresh water but need salt/brackish as larva! It is almost impossible to tell the difference between them!

Assuming you have the freshwater sp. here are the answers to your questions:

-_First of all, about when should she start popping them out?_ 
Usually takes 3-4 weeks
-_Will she lay the eggs, and then they hatch later? _ 
She will carry the eggs till they hatch.
-_Or will they pop out freeswimming? _ 
They will be a free floating larva
-_How big will they be?_
About the size of a 1 week old brine shrimp
-_Second of all, there's probably NO chance that any of the babies will be able to escape the other fish, is there?_
Since they are floaters, if the fish dont get 'em the filter will!
-_The above being the case, what's the best way I could hope to keep some of the little ones, without having to set up a whole new (safe) little tank for them?_
If they dont have a separate tank odds are *VERY* slim any will survive
- _I have one of those little mesh net breeders- would that work, floating in the 30g?_
Might work, but you would have to put the female in the net before the eggs hatch and take her out after. The larva will be filter feeders and that will cause a problem in the net!
-_Can I raise them in a Tupperware container? _ 
Possible, but not easy. The water in a small container will not be very stable and being filter feeders you have to put a fair amount of food in the container to make sure the larva get their food. The amount of food you put in the container will quickly foul the water and kill the shrimp.

The BEST thing you can do on a budget is buy a 2.5 gallon tank from petsmart (less than 10.00) and a small air powered filter like a sponge filter (a few dollars) fill the tank with water from the 30 gallon and transfer the female over to the new tank. When the eggs hatch remover her. Feed the larva food made for filter feeding invertabrates and do frequent small water changes!

Not an easy species to raise the young!!!


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## selena (Nov 15, 2004)

*ghost shrimp baby's*

Ive had my ghost shrimps breeding for a couple months, i have a 40 gallon planted tank, the babys hang out in the plants,when there really little. I only have rummy nose tetras, cory cats, a pleco and an otto, and they seem to leave the shrimp alone. I have a aqua clear on the back and i cut a piece of the sponge material to make a stainer over the end of the intake tube so none of the shrimp would get sucked up. 
I started out with 5 adult shrimp, 2 females and 3 males . All the males died within the first 2 months, but the females developed eggs. I now have about 20 young shrimp in my tank, and the 2 females have eggs again.
When i first noticed the tiny babys i figured they would all get eaten, but a few weeks later i looked in and there were about 5 on a piece of drift wood, i was really exighted, until more and more started becoming apparent, now im feeling kinda over run with them. 
I never fed them any different then normal, and just let them fend for themselves.
You could always throw in some plants, like some cabomba, for the time being, and make the filter intake safe and see what happens.


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## fishyface (Oct 7, 2004)

selena said:


> i cut a piece of the sponge material to make a stainer over the end of the intake tube so none of the shrimp would get sucked up.


so did you cover the strainer or actually push the sponge into the intake pipe? also, how much did that affect the flow of the filter?


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## wonder woman (Oct 30, 2003)

Wow! Sounds like a p.i.t.a. I think I'll just take a laissez-faire position. There are SOOO many hungry little mouths in that tank, and I REALLY don't have the time or room for another. But it's nice to know that the adult shrimp are happy in there!


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

Very good post, Dwarfpufferfish. roud: I was gonna add my input, but you seem to have it covered.
As a side note, I am on my second batch of ghost shrimp in my 1-gallon nano tank. The first batch I accidently PH crashed into oblivion, which was unfortunate, especially since it was the first PH crash I have ever had. 
I have taken the hands on approach though, until I at least raise one batch and maybe 2. The chances of them surviving in a tank with fish is almost zero. The pregnant females are separated from the other tanks and fish and I have a plan and a backup plan for feeding them while they are little. As soon as they settle out of the water column, it will be easy going.
As for raising them in tupperware, I would strongly recommend against it. Raising any type of fry in general requires extremely good water conditions for the first part of their lives. Some breeders go as far as changing most of the tank water twice a day. You just can't get those water conditions in a 30 oz plastic bowl.
-Aphyosemion


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## Dwarfpufferfish (May 29, 2004)

A good idea for a 1 gallon tank is to come up with some way to add more volume without extracting the fry, maybe some sort of overflow that is proteced by a sponge filter???? Maybe even a large canister filter with its flow turned down to next to nothing and sponge filter on the intake! The would almost double your water volume to help a little bit against ph crashes.... Or maybe large water changes everyday! LOL


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## fhqwhgads (Jan 18, 2005)

what kind is the freshwater ghostie, i got the one with the red bands on the antennae


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## danmhippo (Feb 3, 2005)

Freshwater ghostshrimps are the ones they sold as feeder for larger fish. Actually, as mentioned there are several that may be sold as feeder. There are true ghostshrimps that do not grow larger than 1", and I've come across a couple batches that actually are young shrimps of table prawn that grows quite large. The larger ones (the table shrimp) are very hardy and can tolerate both fresh and brackish (almost full strength salt) water and can with stand temp from the mid 60's to low 80's. But for most, it is close to impossible to distinguish which one is which when they are only 1" long.

If you decided to try raising the larvae, they will need green water or suspended partcle rich water for them to feed on when they are in floating larvae stage. Until they morphed into the final shape and confine most of their time to hard surface will then start to feed on detritus on the sand or algae on the plants. I also agree with the previous post that they require good water quality high in O2 and low in ammonia and nitrite. If you tried to raise them and not careful enough, a big group of the youngs can easily poison themselves with ammonia they produced in the container.

Unless you really want to breed them and go through all these troubles, keep in mind, they are only 10 cents each at most. 

I have a bunch of them breeding in my 10G planted already. The tank is 2.5 months old, and the largest of the first batch is already 1cm long.


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## selena (Nov 15, 2004)

fishyface said:


> so did you cover the strainer or actually push the sponge into the intake pipe? also, how much did that affect the flow of the filter?



I just held the sponge material up to the end of the intake tube, to measure about how long it would need to be, cut it, then cut a hole in the middle and shoved it onto the end of the intake tube. Its a little ugly, but the shrimp love it, they sit on the sponge and clean all the food that gets trapped in it. I clean it everytime i do a water change, otherwise it gets quite clogged. As long as i keep it clean, it dosnt affect the flow of the filter.


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## Dwarfpufferfish (May 29, 2004)

It is next to imposible to tell the 100% fresh water ghosties from there cousins... They look exactly the same, the only differance is the larva need salt in the water!


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