# The Complete Fairy Shrimp Guide (hopefully, help me fill in the blanks!)



## DesmondTheMoonBear

I've thought about raising a bunch of these before. I had one that grew up with my triops, their eggs are often included. The things get pretty big compared to regular "sea monkeys" or brine shrimp.


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## xenxes

I read that triops will eat anything (short life cycle, need lots of food), so I don't think I'd keep them in the same tank. 

Found a recent article on the subject of using fairy shrimp as feed:

http://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=ijzr.2011.138.146


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## DesmondTheMoonBear

Yeah, I wasn't intentionally raising it with the triops but it was there and avoided it well. Wonder if you can even keep the fairies in a regular planted tank, but with a very fine sponge filter of course.


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## xenxes

Updated 1st post with most of what I could find. Seems like red-tail and thai are most popular / cheapest. The giant ones look interesting though.


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## jasonpatterson

Excellent post! I've kept triops in the past and tried fairy shrimp but never had any luck. I've got several thousand triops eggs in a ziploc on the shelf though and have been thinking about getting them going again.

I did keep triops with my cherry shrimp with no real problems. I don't know whether they ate the cherry babies or not, but the level of predation, if any, wasn't enough to cause a problem for my colony. They also weren't cannibalistic as is usually advertised. I suspect that a major part of their good behavior is that they had plenty of food that they could eat without bothering to chase it down. When these have been introduced in mosquito control trials that has been the problem: they are voracious but lazy and won't bother chasing the larvae around.

I'd also love to keep mysis relicta or bloody red shrimp. Not really the same thing, but similar in that they are non-shrimp shrimp. Unfortunately nobody sells these as live shrimp, and the second may not even be legal to keep where I'm at.


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## xenxes

Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftBNnrteoP8

The gigas is very expensive though. I'm going to hunt down some 2-3.5" species as pets


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## DesmondTheMoonBear

They're really neat, something for me to consider adding to my tanks since I love lots of life in aquariums, whether it be small or big.


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## xenxes

I grabbed 5k eggs for $5 (Thai fairies), will let you guys know lol.


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## Kannachan13

I have a baggie of beavertail shrimp I have yet to hatch. I kept fairy shrimp until their tank exploded (no, I don't know how....) It was just a round glass vase I kept on my dresser. When the water evaporated about 1/3 of the way, I added distilled or spring water and new babies would hatch. It also had seed shrimp and clam shrimp, but the clam shrimp never laid eggs.


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## Kannachan13

Forgot pictures.


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## xenxes

Exploded!? I think some containers aren't meant to hold water and can't support the weight. I see they're clear, any idea what gives them coloration? or is it purely genetics/breeding. I guess to hatch them any bag of water will do, thanks for the pics


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## Kannachan13

Mine had more coloration when I let them get direct sunlight, I've found the arizona shrimp are the most colorful (are we allowed to post links to other sites here?) arizonafairyshrimp.com had bright green swimmers and red tails. The ones you get as betta feeders on ebay tend to be pink or white.


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## Kannachan13

Oh and distilled water, IMO, works best, I've always had much better hatch rates with distilled than spring with fairy shrimp. With triops it hasn't mattered.


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## xenxes

Kannachan13 said:


> Mine had more coloration when I let them get direct sunlight, I've found the arizona shrimp are the most colorful (are we allowed to post links to other sites here?) arizonafairyshrimp.com had bright green swimmers and red tails. The ones you get as betta feeders on ebay tend to be pink or white.


Yeah you can (just no eBay or Aquabid links), that site is where I got most of the info and pics from. There are not a lot of vendors. But I ended up grabbing Thai ones for cheaper on eBay. 

I guess these will be clear / I'll use them as food. I might pick up some prettier & bigger ones later to add to aquarium life. These are more for experimental purposes :icon_bigg

TY for the direct light & distilled water tip.

Also, hatch those Beavertails before they expire (though I think they're good for 1-2 years)! And post pics!


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## blacksheep998

Back when I used to keep triops I had an occasional fairy shrimp pop up and always liked them. They never got more than a half-inch though.

But they look very cool and the redtail shrimp eggs are very cheap on e-bay $5-10 for 10k eggs. I've got a mini 2 gallon tank laying around I'm not using that I think I might set up for some of these guys. Is it really as easy as just letting the water evaporate and then add distilled water to make the babies hatch? And would RO water work as well as distilled?


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## Kannachan13

Nah shrimp eggs have been known to last ten years I'm good! Arizonafairyshrimp is on ebay too- eeandss. Dadasis is a great seller too, byt he mainly sells triops.


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## xenxes

blacksheep998 said:


> Back when I used to keep triops I had an occasional fairy shrimp pop up and always liked them. They never got more than a half-inch though.
> 
> But they look very cool and the redtail shrimp eggs are very cheap on e-bay $5-10 for 10k eggs. I've got a mini 2 gallon tank laying around I'm not using that I think I might set up for some of these guys. Is it really as easy as just letting the water evaporate and then add distilled water to make the babies hatch? And would RO water work as well as distilled?


I think distilled or RO would work (so long as it's not tap). The Thai breeder site recommended spring water to mimic the water pond environment in the mountains. They're very hardy and hatch/live in almost anything, I think the Red-tail variety is the easiest by far. 

Hatching % is higher in cool water (50-65F). Not sure how to mimic this, maybe I'll keep it under an AC vent or throw in tiny bits of ice.

And replacing the water isn't necessary, they feed off the bacteria & microorganisms in the water. Just don't feed anymore if the water is cloudy and wait for it to clear up by itself.




Kannachan13 said:


> Nah shrimp eggs have been known to last ten years I'm good! Arizonafairyshrimp is on ebay too- eeandss. Dadasis is a great seller too, byt he mainly sells triops.


Had no idea they lasted that long, still, throw a few in and take pics!


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## Kannachan13

xenxes said:


> I think distilled or RO would work (so long as it's not tap). The Thai breeder site recommended spring water to mimic the water pond environment in the mountains. They're very hardy and hatch/live in almost anything, I think the Red-tail variety is the easiest by far.
> 
> Hatching % is higher in cool water (50-65F). Not sure how to mimic this, maybe I'll keep it under an AC vent or throw in tiny bits of ice.
> 
> And replacing the water isn't necessary, they feed off the bacteria & microorganisms in the water. Just don't feed anymore if the water is cloudy and wait for it to clear up by itself.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Had no idea they lasted that long, still, throw a few in and take pics!


...that actually just gave me the brilliant idea of using them to help cycle the new 10g I have... Decisions, decisions...


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## jasonpatterson

Went to setup my triops tank again.

Me: "Honey, where is my stuff from this shelf?"
Wife: "I needed the space."
Me: "That's not what I asked, where is my stuff?"
Wife: "It was just junk."
Me: "Was there a baggie filled with sand?"
Wife: "Yes, it broke open."
Me: "!(@#*&(@!*&#!!!"
--fin--

I scoured the shelf and swept up the bits of sand from the corners. Out of several thousand triops eggs I had harvested, I'll be happy if I have 10 left.


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## blacksheep998

Similar thing happened to me. I had left the sand containing eggs in the small tank I'd been raising them in, and it got dumped out by someone who thought it was trash. I attempted to recover any eggs from the corners of the tank and even had 2 hatch, but they died after a couple days and I'm not sure why. That was the end of my triops adventure though.


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## Kannachan13

There are people who sell the eggs on both ebay and thetriopsforum, but they're really hard to kill I've boiled sand to kill the eggs hoping I could reuse it for another species and the stupid things still hatched.


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## xenxes

jasonpatterson said:


> Me: "Honey, where is my stuff from this shelf?"
> Wife: "I needed the space."
> Me: "That's not what I asked, where is my stuff?"
> Wife: "It was just junk."
> Me: "Was there a baggie filled with sand?"
> Wife: "Yes, it broke open."
> Me: "!(@#*&(@!*&#!!!"
> --fin--


LOL. 



Kannachan13 said:


> There are people who sell the eggs on both ebay and thetriopsforum, but they're really hard to kill I've boiled sand to kill the eggs hoping I could reuse it for another species and the stupid things still hatched.


Triops eggs enter a state of extended diapause when dry, and will tolerate temperatures of up to 98 °C (208 °F) for 16 hours, whereas the adult cannot survive temperatures above 34 °C (93 °F) for 24 hours or 40 °C (104 °F) for 2 hours.​
Triops look creepy. Hatch some fairy shrimps


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## blacksheep998

Just thought I'd give a quick update since this thread was supposed to be a guide.

I got my fairy shrimp eggs yesterday and started them last night in a 2 gallon mini bowfront tank I used to use for guppy fry. I used pure RO water and the only other things in the tank are a small driftwood chunk and a piece of java moss, both from an established tank so they should be nicely coated in algae and microorganisms. The tank has a heater but no filter and I've left the light, a 13 watt 6500K CFL, on continuously since I know light is supposed to help hatching rates.

This morning I checked and there's hundreds of them swimming about, I guess I added too many eggs. lol

The instructions are poorly translated and hard to read, but they appear to say to feed them the bakers yeast formula daily starting on day 1. This goes against most of the guides I've read, so I gave them only a tiny amount.

Anyway, that's my day 1 update. If things continue to go well there will be further ones.


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## Kannachan13

I generally wait 24 hours to feed. Personally I prefer spirulina powder over yeast, the one time I used yeast the water got so cloudy I couldn't even see my shrimp... 

Post pictures when you can. =]


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## blacksheep998

I'll see about picking up some spirulina powder, in the meantime the yeast will have to do. And I tried taking some pictures but they mostly just look like an empty tank right now. Hopefully in a couple days they'll be large enough to see a little easier.


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## jasonpatterson

blacksheep998 said:


> The instructions are poorly translated and hard to read, but they appear to say to feed them the bakers yeast formula daily starting on day 1.


This seems to be the case with virtually all of the vernal pool creatures I've tried. Even the ones who are supposed to be based in the US have terrible Engrish.


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## Kannachan13

If you have issues with the instructions you can usually find them online, or find someone on a forum for vernal critters who can help you out.


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## londonloco

I want pics, please......


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## xenxes

Pics coming... I just finally got my 5,000 Thai Fairy Shrimp eggs from Thailand, apparently they all fit into this:



















I don't have any food ready, can't seem to locate any yeast, or a spare glass container.


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## jasonpatterson

Time to head to the grocery store! 

I tried to hatch out my triops. I had a couple of larvae, but they didn't survive past the first day or two.

I decided to try something new and so I got some clam shrimp and beavertail fairy shrimp eggs just the other day. I'm trying to figure out where I'll be housing the critters as well.


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## xenxes

Lol, grab a big jar of pickles and eat them all!


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## blacksheep998

I've tried a couple times with these fairy shrimp but they all die on day 2 or 3. I'm clearly doing something wrong but I'm not sure what.

First attempt was in a 2 gallon tank under a CFL bulb, and was the only attempt where they made it to day 3. I could also see them starting to grow larger so something was going right at first at least.

Attempts 2 and 3 were in a half-gallon jar on a windowsill and did not go as well, probably due to drafts making the water too cold.

I'm probably going to try again tomorrow in the tank again. I've got spirulina algae powder this time, something I didnt have on the first attempt. I dont think the yeast feeding was a good idea.

Anyone have suggestions on if a bubbler is necessary? Most of the guides I've read seem to suggest using them, but I'm not entirely sure if that much agitation and motion in the water is good for the tiny larva.


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## xenxes

I don't think bubblers are necessary, their natural habitats are standing water. But maybe some plant filtration will help, but it would make it very hard to collect eggs after. Floaters? Didn't have time today but I'll try hatching some tomorrow, picked up a 1 gal vase @ Walmart.


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## madness

Creepy looking SOBs.

Not scary like I would be afraid to put my hand in the tank but just sort of generally scary in that deep sea creature type of way (even if they aren't sea creatures).


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## Kannachan13

I wouldn't suggest a bubbler, when I tried one the current was too strong no matter what I did and I'd find shrimp has been carried up by the current and stuck to the sides of the tank.


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## Bandit1200

xenxes said:


> Lol, grab a big jar of pickles and eat them all!



haha! I actually tried this and I messed up by getting some cheap pickles that are disgusting. The jar is still in the cabinet...


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## xenxes

Okay, finally started my Fairy Shrimp Jar!

*The Eggs:*









Supposedly 5k Thai Fairy eggs in the container; I used 1/3 in my jar; I dumped another little bit in my 20g just to see what happens (panda platies ate some)

*The Container:*









Dumped them in this ~1/2-3/4 gal Walmart vase, water was just tap treated with some Prime









All floating 









I swirled it around a bit with my planting tongs and covered with saran wrap (so my cat won't drink the eggs)

*Food Prep:*









Added some yeast, pinch of sugar, pinch of flakes, bits of veggie sticks (don't know what I'm doing)









Added water, [STRIKE]microwaved 20 secs[/STRIKE] do not microwave!









Stirred, [STRIKE]covered[/STRIKE] don't cover too tightly or it will blow up!, and put in fridge


We'll see if any hatch tomorrow, and if my food poisons them all


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## kurosuto

What's that container next to the vase?

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk


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## DesmondTheMoonBear

kurosuto said:


> What's that container next to the vase?
> 
> Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk


2x

That's a really epic nano whatever it is....and the filter?!


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## xenxes

That's my Marina Betta kit :/ link in sig. No updates to eggs this morning.


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## xenxes

Been throwing in the odd ice cube in to try to get the container down to optimal hatching temperature (50-65F). Not sure how else to do it.









Threw in half a IAL leaf too so they'll have something to nibble on, threw in a pinch of baking soda to compenate for pH, they like it around 7.6

It's been about 24 hours now, and I see a handful of squirming specs of dust in the bottom of the vase. Fed a little bit of yeast soup.









You definitely can't see them in this pic


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## epex

I've ordered Thai fairy shrimps before and they came in the same container. It might have been from the same site. Although mine were in clear gel capsules and not just dumped in the container itself.

For the setup the next time around I suggest using old aquarium tank water. If you can leave the water out in the sun so it gets green with algae and then put some eggs in. 
There is no need for a "bubbler". That just kills them. When the air bubbles rise the tiny things get washed up in the current and they are still fragile. Any container with a large surface area for air transfer will do.

As for food, microwaving the solution just kills and cooks the yeast. So no microwaves. You want your yeast alive. Hot tap water is fine. Don't use as much sugar. You just want the sugar to quick start the yeast. Don't make so much yeast solution especially is you are going to put it in a sealed container. The more yeast food solution, the more gas is produced. The container will pop open and perhaps splatter inside your fridge. 

After a while there will be some muck/slime build up on the bottom of the container. That is normal.


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## xenxes

Lol thanks for the tip, didn't realize a little time in the microwave would kill them all. And yeah, the CO2 popped the lid on my 2nd batch. I added some crushed algae wafers & fish flakes this time. 

There was about 100 squirming white specks of dust when I checked this morning:


















Cloudy from new yeast solution. Put a black folder on the back and turned up contrast & zoom, the round brown ones are those with egg sacs still attached to them.


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## epex

haha, I was typing my response late into the morning so I am tired. I didn't realize that the solution was microwaved for only 20 sec. My response was/is for the entire group in this thread. I'm too lazy to click the quote button  Anywho...moving on...

I've used java moss and fire moss for the creatures to cling to at the bottom. As for the waterline, I use duckweed, frogbit and dwarf water lettuce. The roots of the floating plants are great for them to hang on to.

Sponge filters can also be used, BUT the device must be modded so that as the bubbles exit the top of the sponge at or near the waterline. Either propping the sponge filter nearer the top of the water or use some sort of tubing to extend the filter.


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## xenxes

Update today, looks like the same amount is still alive, got bigger. I doubt there were 5000 eggs in that thing.


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## DesmondTheMoonBear

Neat, I'm following this thread with interest. I've always been fascinated by things that have a suspended animation egg state like triops, brine shrimp, daphina, etc.


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## blacksheep998

Well I'm going on attempt #4 now. I haven't had much luck yet but I've still got plenty of eggs so I'm willing to experiment.

This time I went with a gallon of the remineralized RO water that I use for water changes in my CRS tank. No air bubbles or heater.



DesmondTheMoonBear said:


> Neat, I'm following this thread with interest. I've always been fascinated by things that have a suspended animation egg state like triops, brine shrimp, daphina, etc.


It's a very interesting topic actually.

In most animals that survive desiccation, they survive by producing a sugar called trehalose. It has very high water-retention properties and so holds on to tiny amounts of water even in very dry environments. This prevents their DNA and proteins from breaking apart which they would if there was no water.

There are other methods too. Bdelloid rotifers instead use enzymes that actually reassemble the parts of their cellular machinery when they rehydrate. This has the interesting side effect of causing them to pick up random bits of DNA from dead organisms in the environment and incorporate those into their own genome.


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## xenxes

Wow, neat! I started reading about Bdelloidea on Wiki, then the links, then an hour went by  I stopped reading at human DNA found inside Gonorrhea.


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## xenxes

Not much luck with this, substantially less shrimp in there this morning. The water was clearing up last night so I fed more yeast from the fridge. 

Most of it settled to the bottom this morning, so I thought I'd give it a whirl -- bad idea. I think I killed more with my planting tong-created tornado. They're very delicate. The few that are still alive are much bigger, I'd say quadrupled in size.


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## Kannachan13

In general I'd say I usually had about 90% die off. I think they may just have a very low survival rate.


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## xenxes

What kind do you use kannachan? I just bought 10k red tail fairy shrimps, supposed to be the most temperature tolerant. I actually bid on another 10k, hope I don't win both and end up with 20k eggs :/


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## mmccarthy781

subscribed


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## Kannachan13

xenxes said:


> What kind do you use kannachan? I just bought 10k red tail fairy shrimps, supposed to be the most temperature tolerant. I actually bid on another 10k, hope I don't win both and end up with 20k eggs :/


I have redtail, spinytail, beavertail, as well as a few different types sold on ebay as betta feeders.


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## xenxes

Well I'm down to maybe 10-20 Thai fairy shrimp. It seems like the numbers go down everytime I feed them, I wonder if my yeast solution is killing them.









Added more frogbits, I keep wanting to give them some filtration, but any movement would probably kill them









Cropped shot. Lots of particles in water, the bottom of the vase is pretty much completely white/grey, probably from fairy shrimp and yeast corpses


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## Kannachan13

If your water is that cloudy you shouldn't be feeding them. You can go as many as two-three days before feeding depending on how many you have.


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## xenxes

Just took some macro shots with my cheap $10 extender. 









i don't know what the worm-things are but they move









big eyes









that water is nasty









a greenish one near the plants









what the hell is this? looks like an alien spacecraft


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## Bandit1200

HaHa, your " space ship is an air bubble, either on the inside of the glass, but more likely an air bubble IN the glass from when it was formed and stretched into shape.

*edit*

If that is in the glass as I think likely, you may want to be careful around that area of the container. Depending on the thickness of the glass, that will be a stress point as the amount of glass there will be minimal in that spot.


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## xenxes

Yeah I think it's a chip. Walmart vases aren't known for quality. I got the red tail shrimps in the mail today, wondering if I should just throw them in or wait to start a new batch. 

Will probably wait... read early bacteria/algae bloom will smother baby shrimp. Hoping these are hardier.

Actually... I think I'll throw some in, just to see if they grow in stale water and will interbreed with the Thai?









10k eggs, came in an envelope. I guess the Thai container maybe really had 5k eggs?









Filmy water starting to smell, ugh

What sucks about fairy shrimp is you can't keep a sustainable colony for fish food, since the eggs have to dry and freeze before becoming active. Maybe I'll try some ostracods?


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## Bandit1200

I don't think that is necessarily the case. I'm not positive about fairy shrimp, but I know that in brine shrimp there are 4 basic components in the reproductive cycle. 

1. parthenogenisis
2. eggs that hatch immediately (no drying cycle)
3. eggs that need to dry and and be immersed
4. eggs that need to dry and be immersed TWICE

Hopefully the fairy shrimp are close enough in biology that they also follow this cycle.


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## Kannachan13

I've had luck getting them to hatch by adding fresh water, but I don't think it's technically supposed to happen.


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## james1542

Are you running air and maybe you could get away with a sponge filter once they are older?


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## epex

how much yeast solution are you dropping in the water? At this point if the water is even slightly hazy, there is still yeast solution from the last time you fed them. The rest is at the bottom of the container. If you look closely at the bottom, the creatures should be hopping in and out of it. It should be fine to leave them without food for a while as algae should be growing on the root system of the floating plants. Drop some sort of Java moss or plant (frogbit, duckweed, etc.) roots to the bottom to attract the yeast and particles.

the worm like things in the water might be planeria. it probably hitched a ride from your plants. they grow when there is an abundance of food...



james1542 said:


> Are you running air and maybe you could get away with a sponge filter once they are older?


as I mention on a post before you can use a sponge filter now. just control the amount of bubbles or get the bubbles to exit near the waterline to get some agitation, but not so much as what you did on the "planting tong-created tornado"

Now, for the film on top of the water, just take a paper towel and lay it on top to soak the oily film. the plastic wrap on the container, I don't think you need, as the temperature where you are is hot enough.

OMG, I just took a look at your last photos. Did you actually go through the microtube of Thai fairy shrimp in that one (1) container of water. if you did, it's ok you can still save the eggs that did not hatch.


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## ilurk

Sounds to me like fairy shrimp should be raised like daphnia, which I don't think the water should stink at any time. Maybe you can pour some out and dilute or turkey baste them into a fresh container of water.


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## epex

ilurk said:


> Sounds to me like fairy shrimp should be raised like daphnia, which I don't think the water should stink at any time. Maybe you can pour some out and dilute or turkey baste them into a fresh container of water.



Pretty much. but I think the Daphnia is more hardy though. I did the same thing as XenXes did but much worse as I agitated the water (with daphnia and fairy shrimp) a lot more and probably put in 2oz or more of yeast solution in a 1 gallon tank. (the dropper bottle slipped.) I just threw the water in my pond and about 2-3 weeks later i filled a small tank for some aquatic plants and noticed things swimming around. they were the daphnia.


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## xenxes

I haven't fed for 2 days, going to hold off another. I see maybe 20 0.25-0.5" fairy shrimp swimming around, trailing a string of pool 2-10x their body size. Guess I overdid the yeast. Water smelled like old yeast before, doesn't smell now. The frogbits and riccia are growing extremely fast in the container. Lots of nasty particles on the roots. 

The saran wrap was to keep dust out, there's holes in it, but I removed it to encourage evaporation so I can top off with fresh water. I only used maybe 1/4 of what was in the tube, it came 1/4 full.

I think it's best without filtration, as they eat the bacteria/algae in the water the filter might otherwise remove. They're like little filters themselves. Smallest I have is a hagen elite mini, and I think even that toned all the way down and stuffed with sponges will blow them around.

The temperature in the container is at a steady 78F during the day, 74F at night. Higher than the optimal hatching rate.










Fairly difficult to get a sharp pic of these w/o a proper macro lens.


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## epex

I must say tho. I am impressed by your camera. Can you tell us your setup. the pictures are clean and crisp. 

Anywho...could you take a picture of the bottom of the container where all the gunk is? It's for reference for the others of what it looks like. I highly doubt all the eggs hatched. You can save all that bottom layer and filter it through a coffee filter. Then dry it for a few days and put it in the freezer until you want to try again.


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## xenxes

Just a T3i with the 18-55 kit lens, for macro I used one of the cheap alternatives I listed here, until I have $800 to fork over for a proper lens. I prefer using the $10 extension tube.

Most of the eggs did not hatch, I didn't want to add more ice cubes to simulate ideal hatching temperatures with the shrimp inside it, the freeze/temp drop might kill them?









Gunk









Mix of old and new eggs I tossed in yesterday









"FTS"









Frogbits love stagnant water, they usually die off a little and regrow in my tanks with movement, here they just stay green and keep growing


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## Jeffww

I think you're experiencing losses because you're feeding too much. When I feed brine I barely add a few drops of yeast solution. I don't know if aeration is necessary for fairy shrimp though. But when I hatch brine I put them in a large graduated cylinder and sink the airstone down. None the less it's a significant amount of flow. They're photosensitive too so hatching should be done under light.


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## xenxes

Jeffww said:


> I think you're experiencing losses because you're feeding too much. When I feed brine I barely add a few drops of yeast solution.


Yeah I figured :/ 3rd day without feeding, I still see gunk attached to the frogbits roots so I'll hold off until that clears up. Water is a tinge of green, so there's infusoria in there now too.


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## Kannachan13

Once you have green water you shouldn't need to feed at all.


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## blacksheep998

Kannachan13 said:


> Once you have green water you shouldn't need to feed at all.


That's what I thought. Unfortunately I don't have any bright enough windows in my apartment, so I've got my tank sitting about 6 inches under a 13 watt CFL that's on 24/7. 

I used water from my blue pearl shrimp tank and left it under the light for 2 days before adding eggs. I'm on day 3 with this batch of babies and they seem to be doing well so far. Don't want to jinx myself but I think I might have gotten it this time.


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## xenxes

Hmm I do have 20+ shrimp, just couldn't see some at the bottom, so about 1/5 of the hatched batch survived. At night they hang out on the bottom and scrape against the floor, not sure why.. food? Soon as the light comes on they swarm towards the top. Lol they seem too precious to use as feed now, maybe in a few weeks towards the end of their life span.


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## epex

with all the light off/dark, you can use a small bright flashlight and shine it at the side of the container. The fairy shrimp or whatever else you have in there (daphnia, clams shrimp, etc) will be attracted to it and you can better assess how many you have in the container.

@blacksheep : as long as you resist the urge to take your tong and swirl the water around to make tornadoes, you should be fine.... ;P (sorry xenxes, couldn't resist!!!)


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## xenxes

They like the adrenaline rush  I didn't create a tornado today but I did run a paper towel across the top, it's so filmy and chalky and looks like glue, yuck. That probably created a tidal wave tsunami for the shrimp.


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## blacksheep998

epex said:


> as long as you resist the urge to take your tong and swirl the water around to make tornadoes, you should be fine


It's rather odd that most of the instructions I see online for hatching fairy shrimp say to use a bubbler for maximum oxygenation in the water. It seems though that they really don't like that. They like totally stagnant water, which makes sense considering they live in temporary ponds without any water flow.


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## xenxes

Yeah, I'm wondering about ammonia and nitrite levels though, I'm sure their natural stagnant water conditions can't be that good. I should probably test it tomorrow to see, but I haven't had a massive die off which is probably a good thing. 

I'm sure putting in cycled media would help, but it would be much harder to collect the eggs from the gunk at the end.

I wish I could get some Branchinecta ferrox and Cyzicus tetracerus from the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftBNnrteoP8. They're huuge and colorful.


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## blacksheep998

I feel like based on their habitats they'd have to be very resistant to ammonia and nitrites. Their little pools would probably dry up before they even finished cycling.

If I have good luck with my redtail fairy shrimp I might try beavertails next, just because they get so large. Up to 2 inches.


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## blacksheep998

Things were going well anyway. Last night I had well over 100 fairy shrimp happily swimming around. This morning less than half that number are still swimming, though many of the others are still alive on the bottom of the tank moving slightly but without enough strength to get off the ground.

The tank's not heated, so maybe as the house warms up some of those will 'revive'. But I'm not holding my breath.


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## ilurk

i also started a red tail + clam shrimp culture about 10 days ago from az fairy shrimp, but had only a couple of dozen hatchings. They look about 1.5cm now and i didn't notice any mortality. I think it's because i started with so few hatchlings and i started with a small glass of water (1/2 wine glass) so the fairy shrimp were able to filter the small volume more quickly than if i started with 1/2 gal and leaving less food for fouling. for temperature regulation i have the glass floating in my aquarium.

regarding the ammonia and nitrites, a lot of bacteria form spores. I wouldn't be surprised if the fairy shrimp hatched into a fairly mature nitrogen cycling ecosystem.


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## xenxes

Tested water, 4ppm Ammonia, 1ppm Nitrite, 10ppm Nitrate. Shrimps still alive, similar numbers. Starting to see a lot of other tiny creatures pop up. I haven't done any w/cs, or fed anything in a week. Water @ the surface is crusty-like-glue, but started clearing up a little. My floater plants are doing extremely well. They grow maybe 2x faster when the water has no movement.


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## xenxes

Maybe 10 left in the vase, there is a sea of other creatures in there now, and all kinds of tiny algae/whatever growth. The riccia was covered in green hair algae. 

Growing/hatching them as feed seems like too much work, but watching the puddle of water come to life sure is entertaining.


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## diwu13

Guess this shows seed shrimp and random other creatures just pop up randomly as hitch hikers on plants.


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## xenxes

Adult size now, taken with a regular lens, about 1" long









What is all this gunk on the side of the glass? Some of it moves. There's a lot of little bugs going up and down the sides.









Yum, pasty.

These were fun for a while, too hard to raise as feed, too little and fragile to enjoy. Back to my neocaridinas  

I'm going to have 2 extra 1g vases when I dump this, wonder what I should do with them? Walstad vase?


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## Robotponys

Yes! Walstad with some yellow, cherry/fire reds/sakuras, snowball (DO NOT KEEP THOSE TOGETHER, they will create hybrids) or tiger shrimp (fine with the other ones) since they're all the same species except tigers. And they're all hardy, tigers are a bit less though.


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## xenxes

I'm thinking of growing Limnophila Aromatica out of one, they look and smell nice. I could do nano ripariums. Think I'll feed off the remaining fairies tomorrow 

If I add shrimp I guess I could throw in some moss. How long would it take for a 1g to get established without a filter? I could throw in some substrate from my 20g for speed it up? Lol maybe I could buy 2 more Hagen Elite minis.


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## diwu13

Little dots are probably seed shrimp, cyclops, and other little goodies. If you just pour that water into your fish tank they'll be lots of good snacks haha.


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## Robotponys

xenxes said:


> I'm thinking of growing Limnophila Aromatica out of one, they look and smell nice. I could do nano ripariums. Think I'll feed off the remaining fairies tomorrow
> 
> If I add shrimp I guess I could throw in some moss. How long would it take for a 1g to get established without a filter? I could throw in some substrate from my 20g for speed it up? Lol maybe I could buy 2 more Hagen Elite minis.


Not from experience, but I'm not sure it could even cycle since the bacteria needs a steady supply of food which it can't get since the water isn't bringing new sources to it. But with a filter I hear it takes as little as a few days and as much as 6 weeks.


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## xenxes

diwu13 said:


> Little dots are probably seed shrimp, cyclops, and other little goodies. If you just pour that water into your fish tank they'll be lots of good snacks haha.


Would that be wise? :icon_eek:

Pretty high ammonia/nitrite concentration, I guess the bacteria will make short work of them. Hmm, definitely considering it. A cyclops/daphnia colony will mean food for the platies and longer time before each feeding.

I'm just worried there might be some non-goodies in there :/




Robotponys said:


> Not from experience, but I'm not sure it could even cycle since the bacteria needs a steady supply of food which it can't get since the water isn't bringing new sources to it. But with a filter I hear it takes as little as a few days and as much as 6 weeks.


Yeah, some ammonia / dead matter to kick it off with a small pantyhose of old biomedia on the bottom. Once nitrites level off and plants root/grow I'll add a few culls. Only maintenance would be water top offs.


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## xenxes

I moved the jar outside, and the last 3 adult fairy shrimp finally died. The longest lived were about 3 1/2 weeks. The gunk on the bottom and stuck to the roots of the floaters probably hold thousands of eggs:










I don't feel like vacuuming it out yet since there's a growing population of daphnia, flea shrimp, and cyclops. Going to culture them some more and introduce them to my tanks with fish. I did not feed at all for the last 2 weeks, everything's living off the decomposing ketapang leaf + whatever else is in there.

In the mean while started 4 more jars (pickle, salsa, peppers):










2 jars of Thai, 2 jars of Redtail.


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## diwu13

I think you should be fine pouring some of that water into your tank as food. Since your tank is 20G and you pour in 1G, you're already diluting the nitrates by 20fold, so it should be perfectly fine.

Btw... those are a lot of jars. Reminds me of the moss jars cableguy is doing


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## xenxes

I poured maybe 1/2g in, whatever little inverts in there probably got eaten by the new corys already.


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## diwu13

Pygmy cories? I need to check out your journal :O?


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## xenxes

Wow! They hatched already within 24 hours. The 2 redtail jars are SWARMING. The Thai hasn't hatched, at all. No real difference between the ones with ketapang and without ketapang leaves.

Not a very good representation since the focus only shows 1 layer of the water column:


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## dxiong5

Any updates on your Fairy Shrimp projects? I am thinking about getting some - for feeding nano fish/fry and adding to my shrimp collection.


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## xenxes

dxiong5 said:


> Any updates on your Fairy Shrimp projects? I am thinking about getting some - for feeding nano fish/fry and adding to my shrimp collection.


Not really, I have a little fish food growing area (few tupperwares and jars) on my balcony, here are the latest pics.

I've switched to growing daphnia because they're sustainable, with fairy shrimp you have to keep siphoning out eggs after each cycle and get a batch of fresh water. I do have a few shrimp over 2 months old now, over 1". I think they make better pets than food, fresh-water sea monkeys if you will.


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## dxiong5

xenxes said:


> Not really, I have a little fish food growing area (few tupperwares and jars) on my balcony, here are the latest pics.
> 
> I've switched to growing daphnia because they're sustainable, with fairy shrimp you have to keep siphoning out eggs after each cycle and get a batch of fresh water. I do have a few shrimp over 2 months old now, over 1". I think they make better pets than food, fresh-water sea monkeys if you will.


Wow, those look great; plants look like they're growing well also. Neat idea, wish I had space (and clearance) to have planters like that.

I read through this thread and did see that you concluded fairy shrimp weren't sustainable. I've done the brine shrimp thing before, but messing with salt etc. and hatching _waaay_ more bbs than I need just seems like too much work for the amount of fish I'm feeding right now. I think I'll give the fairies a whirl and feed what I can; plus, I can keep the critters around as "pets" also. Thanks for the great info in this thread roud:


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## xenxes

Daphnia and microworms are probably the easiest cultures for fish


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## Soothing Shrimp

Not to revive this thread, but I'm reviving this thread. LOL

Just ordered some redtail, so I'll show you what I do when they come in and I experiment.


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## sugarbyte

I'm also reviving this thread (yay!) I just received my fairy shimp eggs from dadasis on [Ebay Link Removed] I'm super excited to get these going


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## Soothing Shrimp

OKay, it is up to you to show us. Mine are still in eggs since I haven't had time to do what I wanted! LOL


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## sugarbyte

That sucks, I was really curious to see how your setup turned out! I'm still debating what kind of setup I want to have.. sand as substrate, maybe some plants? I'm not sure yet. Suggestions?


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## auban

the red tail fairy shrimp are capable of forming self sustaining colonies. every few weeks i do a water change on my live food tub and more and more fairy shrimp hatch. right now i have about a thousand more that just hatched out.

i have red tail fairy shrimp in most of my tanks. i use them to feed the fish, but if they are already too big for them, they just swim around and live happy lives.

i grow them in a continuous culture of green water:








every once in a while i get black worms and freeze the water i use to rinse them, in ice cube trays. every few days i toss one of the ice cubes in the tub and it keeps the green water going.

here is a video of some of the fairy shrimp in the tank i breed my E. gilbertis in.
http://s1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/sjveck/?action=view&current=20121125_024244.mp4

im my experience, you cant beat green water for raising fairy shrimp.


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## auban

here is another video of fairy shrimp in a tank i grow fry out in. the fry are all rescues from my display tank. every couple days i swipe the hair grass with a fish net and catch a few more. i grow them out in this tank until they are big enough to return to the main tank without being eaten by the adults. that usually only takes a few weeks at most.

obviously, the fairy shrimp can get too big for the fry pretty fast, so i usually have to net them out of this tank to feed them off.
http://s1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/sjveck/?action=view&current=20121222_143749.mp4


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## Soothing Shrimp

LOL They all look they they are lounging on their backs.


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## sugarbyte

Very cool set ups you have there. Thank you so much for sharing  In your opinion what are the ideal temperatures for hatching/raising fairy shrimp? My room runs pretty cool in the winter so I'm wondering if I'll need a heater.


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## auban

to be honest, im not sure. back in north carolina the temps would get over 100 degrees and the fairy shrimp survived in a tub in full sun.

my guess is that redtails like warmer water, somewhere around 75 degrees, but will tolerate very wide ranging temperatures. i know they can survive for a week without the temp ever dropping below 100 degrees...

at the same time, they live much longer in cooler waters. my suggestion, try to get them on green water if you can. if you cant, just find something that works and stick with it. i have never met any two people who raise these things the exact same way.


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## Rob in Puyallup

Cool thread. I used to catch fairy shrimp in a pond near the local junior high school when I was a kid. They'd show up in late winter. Would have them in coffee cans and jars in my bedroom. 

Could be fun keeping them now... 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 2


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## auban

a quick swipe of the live food culture. if you want to keep them as pets, something that works pretty well is raising them in a tank with green water and then moving them to a clear tank so that you can enjoy them. there are dero worms, black worms, redtail fairy shrimp, moinas, daphnia, and ostracods in this mixed culture.

http://s1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/sjveck/?action=view&current=20121224_223624.mp4


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## hdbikersbabe

I just wanted to add to this forum. I hatched red tail fairy very easily and love watching them. I had a ton of them and the water looked terrible so I changed the water and lost many of them. Tonight I was looking at the shrimp and noticed babies. Now I ciphered them out and don't think any were eggs, however even so I thought the eggs were to be dried out before they would hatch again. Well something is definitely happening with my lil tank of RTF shrimp. Oh and they absolutely LOVE the nasty water. Not sure when I will change it again.


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## Mortis

By red tail fairy shrimp do you mean Thai fairy shrimp ? I didnt know they had self sustaining colonies


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## hdbikersbabe

*Didn't think they did*

I have no idea about their colonies. I thought they only hatched. As far as the "kind" I purchased red tailed fairy shrimp from a website. They do have the Thai Fairy Shrimp too. I just purchased them to hatch them and watch them. I like water fleas better. At any rate when I did a water change there were babies. I thought the eggs had to dry out and then re-hatch. Oh well just learning stuff, which is good for me.


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## sugarbyte

Hey guys,

I've finally hatched my fairy shrimp. I set it up last night and they're already swimming around today! I just made some yeast 'soup'. 

Here's a photo of my little hatching bowl that I got from the dollar store. (sorry you can't see the mini shrimps! they're too small now)


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## Robotguy

I've been checking out the thread since I just picked up some redtail eggs to help feed my finicky Scarlet Badis. I followed the instructions with a few eggs, then decided to throw a few eggs in a small bowl I had planted with Glosso, Hygro and Blyxa the day before. 



I didn't hold out much hope for the bowl because I used Amazonia and it releases a lot of ammonia in the beginning, but WOW! They really took off. After 12 hours I could see about 6 wiggling dots. The next day (36 hours) there were about a dozen. The following morning there were almost 30 and this afternoon (4 days) it looks like there are around 60. They seem to be all different sized, perhaps from hatching in waves. I've been giving them a couple drops of yeast-water each day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx4mLI0pLY0

The bowl I followed the directions with only has a couple. In another day or two, I'll siphon some out of the planted bowl to feed to the Badis.


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## Gill

I just purchased some red tail fairy shrimp. And will be using a 1G mature planted bowl, that houses thai micro crabs and sakura red cherries. Is planted with Hair Grass, Java and willow Moss. Sits in the shade on the windowsill. would this be suffecient. Will feed with Spirulina powder


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## Soothing Shrimp

Don't red tail eggs have to be dried before they hatch again, or can they work from "wet" also? It would be really cool to have a total fairy cycle going.


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## auban

Soothing Shrimp said:


> Don't red tail eggs have to be dried before they hatch again, or can they work from "wet" also? It would be really cool to have a total fairy cycle going.


reviving this thread... as you did! 

to answer your question, yes, they typically need to be dried out. 
that said, some of the eggs dont actually need to be completely dried. some of them will hatch out just by doing a water change. my guess is that a water change increases the osmotic pressure. after a while, the water gets saturated with dissolved solids, and doing a water changes tricks the eggs into hatching again, despite the fact that they never actually dried out to begin with. 

its kinda like triops. most of the eggs need to be dried out, but a small percentage(maybe ten percent?) will hatch without actually being dried out, they just need fresh water, which might simulate a new rain. 

by doing water changes after the fairy shrimp have been laying eggs for a couple weeks, i can keep a culture going for quite a while. and if it ever does completely crash, i just dry them out, rehydrate, and THOUSANDS hatch out.


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## Soothing Shrimp

I wonder if the ones that don't need dried out would be naturally bred for a strain of regular producers in a regularly maintained tank?


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## Fishfur

Just read this thread.. as I've ordered some Thai fairy shrimp.. and been looking at the Arizona site's red tails as well. Would the consensus be that the Red tails are the easiest ones to manage ?

I have various fish, including some dwarf chain loaches, that I'd much prefer to feed with live food. The response they show to, say, black worm or adult brine shrimp is much more enthusiastic than the one they show for dry foods. 

I also keep Bettas in 2.5G tanks without filters or bubblers, instead, they have plenty of plants and a light. The fish are doing fine, testing always shows 0, 0 & <10. About half floaters, frogbit mainly, half a mix of fern, moss, anubias, H. difformis. Anyone think a tank like this would suit keeping the red tails or the Thais ? Temps might be a problem, it's hot here in summer, but they changed the heating system so it's fairly cool in winter now. The tanks in the one room, that I don't have heaters for yet,run around 70 - 74, and I'm debating whether I need to put heaters in or not. Before the change, it was always about 90F, and I ran fans all winter instead.. so still trying to figure out if the fish will be all right without additional heat or not. The shrimp sure don't mind the temps.

I am actually hoping the fairy shrimp eggs will also contain other critters. I'd love to get some more Ostracods, and would not mind other things such as cyclops or rotifers, etc, they all make great fish food. I had Ostracods for some time but they didn't breed well, and I might not have been keeping them in the right conditions.. they came from pretty stagnant pots of Lotus plants, and I had a sponge filter going in their tank, and only a few duckweeds for plants. They might have preferred still water, like the fairy shrimp seem to. Haven't been able to find a source for Ostracods on their own, unfortunately.

And I also have a bunch of moina eggs coming, which I hope to be able to keep going well enough to use as live food. I'm a big believer in living foods, and two of my four Bettas are seriously picky, often they refuse anything that's not alive. Frozen BBS are taken, sometimes they'll eat frozen bloodworm but mostly, they want it wiggling before they try it. Hence the fairy shrimp. 

I'm not very keen on trying brine shrimps, don't really want to deal with the salt water at this point, though I may later. Currently also trying to get a colony of scuds established for feeding, the one Betta is a dead keen scud hunter, he actually killed off all the scuds in his tank, he's got a 5G to himself and some snails. He wiped out the scuds in a week or so of enthusiastic hunting. He seems to prefer bottom feeding, odd fishie that he is, often ignoring fruit flies or other insects I put on the surface that the others take pretty eagerly.

Anyway, just wondering if setting up another small tank like I have for the Bettas is likely to work with the red tail or Thai fairy shrimps.. Feeding them shouldn't be too hard, I've fed moinia before with yeast, and normally have cultured green water on hand too, which I feed to larvae and filter feeding shrimp and clams. If keeping them in green water works, that wouldn't be that hard to arrange.


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## lookimawave

Fishfur said:


> Just read this thread.. as I've ordered some Thai fairy shrimp.. and been looking at the Arizona site's red tails as well. Would the consensus be that the Red tails are the easiest ones to manage ?
> 
> I have various fish, including some dwarf chain loaches, that I'd much prefer to feed with live food. The response they show to, say, black worm or adult brine shrimp is much more enthusiastic than the one they show for dry foods.
> 
> I also keep Bettas in 2.5G tanks without filters or bubblers, instead, they have plenty of plants and a light. The fish are doing fine, testing always shows 0, 0 & <10. About half floaters, frogbit mainly, half a mix of fern, moss, anubias, H. difformis. Anyone think a tank like this would suit keeping the red tails or the Thais ? Temps might be a problem, it's hot here in summer, but they changed the heating system so it's fairly cool in winter now. The tanks in the one room, that I don't have heaters for yet,run around 70 - 74, and I'm debating whether I need to put heaters in or not. Before the change, it was always about 90F, and I ran fans all winter instead.. so still trying to figure out if the fish will be all right without additional heat or not. The shrimp sure don't mind the temps.
> 
> I am actually hoping the fairy shrimp eggs will also contain other critters. I'd love to get some more Ostracods, and would not mind other things such as cyclops or rotifers, etc, they all make great fish food. I had Ostracods for some time but they didn't breed well, and I might not have been keeping them in the right conditions.. they came from pretty stagnant pots of Lotus plants, and I had a sponge filter going in their tank, and only a few duckweeds for plants. They might have preferred still water, like the fairy shrimp seem to. Haven't been able to find a source for Ostracods on their own, unfortunately.
> 
> And I also have a bunch of moina eggs coming, which I hope to be able to keep going well enough to use as live food. I'm a big believer in living foods, and two of my four Bettas are seriously picky, often they refuse anything that's not alive. Frozen BBS are taken, sometimes they'll eat frozen bloodworm but mostly, they want it wiggling before they try it. Hence the fairy shrimp.
> 
> I'm not very keen on trying brine shrimps, don't really want to deal with the salt water at this point, though I may later. Currently also trying to get a colony of scuds established for feeding, the one Betta is a dead keen scud hunter, he actually killed off all the scuds in his tank, he's got a 5G to himself and some snails. He wiped out the scuds in a week or so of enthusiastic hunting. He seems to prefer bottom feeding, odd fishie that he is, often ignoring fruit flies or other insects I put on the surface that the others take pretty eagerly.
> 
> Anyway, just wondering if setting up another small tank like I have for the Bettas is likely to work with the red tail or Thai fairy shrimps.. Feeding them shouldn't be too hard, I've fed moinia before with yeast, and normally have cultured green water on hand too, which I feed to larvae and filter feeding shrimp and clams. If keeping them in green water works, that wouldn't be that hard to arrange.


sooo, how did it work out?


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## auban

wow, this thread just doesnt want to die...

anyway, i have been extremely busy since i last posted. i have moved across the country, gone to a whole lot of training events for my job, and bought a house. my current job takes my away from home for all but a few months a year, so i have pretty much abandoned all of my aquarium and fish projects for now, to be restarted when i get done doing what i do for a living. 

vernal pool critters, however, are still game. right now, i have six triops in a one gallon tank. they have already laid a whole lot of eggs, and i expect them to lay a whole lot more before i leave again. yeah, im going to be that weird guy that takes egg laden sand and fish food with me on deployment. 

whatever. its what i like. if my employer wants my skills, they can deal with my eccentricity. they need me far more than i need them. ill have my darned triops! 

honestly, i dont know why more people dont grow triops. the darned things are like mini horse shoe crabs in a fresh water tank. only, more active and more interesting.

besides, if you get tired of them, you can drain their tank and set it aside for years on end and start them back up the second you feel so inclined. 
awesome little critters...


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## Nion

I have packets of triops eggs but can't get them to hatch. What type of water are you using. I've tried distilled, rain, and treated tap. 

Sent from my GT-P5113 using Tapatalk


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## auban

I use tap water, from well. No chemicals. 

I just leave a light on them and an air stone 24/7 and don't seem to have any problems. 

There are some tricks I have learned, though...

If you take a new tripps kit and pour the eggs into a plastic bottle, and add some sand, it seems as though you can increase their hatch rates by shaking the bottle every hour for the first five hours. 

This is what in have done: pour the eggs from the kit into a plastic water bottle. Add about half an inch of sand. Add water. Cap it off. Every hour, on the hour, spend a few minutes vigorously shaking the bottle. Do this for three to six hours. 

Then pour the contents into a container and leave a light and an air stone on it. 

I think the scratching from the sand stimulates them to hatch. Whatever the case is, this is what has yielded the highest hatch rates for me.


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## PhilipS

I sold off my Artemia cysts (eggs) last winter since Streptocephalus are native to my State and are freshwater. No more saltwater in a litterbox to hatch Artemia on the balcony.

Best to soak cysts of any kind in minimal amount of fresh filtered water for an hour, then slowly add more filtered water so that the cysts don't get caught in the meniscus or splashed up the sides. Just a little every few hours. Seems to mimic the vernal pool effect.

Keep warm and lit for first 24 hours, feed day after hatching.

Green water should be the primary food. 

Mix of Soy flour, Blood meal, Rotifer food, etc can cloud the water when overdone. Lots of recipes for liquid fry food.

Live food is best, and its fun.


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## clhtjh

xenxes said:


> *Feeding*:
> In the wild, fairy shrimps are filter feeders. They strain tiny particles (bacteria, algae, spores) out of the water. In captivity, they can live on a diet of “yeast soup”: dissolve 1 packet of dried yeast (bakers or brewers), 1 teaspoon of sugar, and a big pinch of crushed fish food flakes in 1/3 cup of hot spring water. Mix well and let it sit an hour. Store your “soup” in the refrigerator or another cool place. To feed your shrimp, stir or shake the mixture thoroughly. (It settles out quickly.) Use an eyedropper or pipette to drip a few drops of the soup into the water. Give the right amount of food -- the water should be slightly hazy (still see-through), but not cloudy. If it becomes cloudy, stop feeding for a day or two until it clears up.


Thank you! I kept wondering why mine never grew past the tiny stage and died. I wasn't feeding the right food. I mixed your recommendation and they're already happier within minutes.


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## bubblerings

Fairy Shrimp... since they so often just seem to Die...
-does anyone know what water parameters are affected when placing dead plant material (leaves) in water to decay, as in Infusoria culture... Oxygen levels, PH, nutrients... obviously amonnia.
I want to create a vernal pool scenario for fairy shrimp, instead of making them suffer and die.
I was happy to find Green Water in a stone birdbath where I live. It stays dry most of the year.
-It contains dust and dirt from winds (Maui) and some dry leaves and parts.
It made a solid green cloud in about a week.
-I can put a large trash can or stock tank outdoors, year round to grow fairy shrimp... with aeration.
It would have a cover to keep out beetles, mosquitoes, Dragonflies, etc.
If Auban is commenting, am most interested in his Live Food green water continuous culture!
-I'm a new member... Mahalo! -Scotty on Maui.

I understand that Green Water and Detritus contain most of Fairy Shrimps' food.
Edit... I AM new.. Searched Vernal Pools and found auban's Fishless Cycle With Vernal Pool Critters... Amazing!


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