# Ghost Shrimp Hatchlings



## Lee04 (Feb 11, 2012)

Hello!

I was removing some water lettuce from my tank today when I discovered that some ghost shrimplets hatched! 
I've never had them hatch before, so I don't know if my plan is the best. What do you think? 

-I will add an airstone (to counteract co2 a bit)
-Will return the filter with a mesh covering.
-Will feed crushed algae wafer, flakes or boiled egg yolk. 

There are only ghost shrimps and one glass catfish in the tank. The catfish has shown no interest in them. 
I have water lettuce covering the entire 10 gallon tank's surface. 
Temperature is about 78 degrees. I have pressurized co2. 

Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

It's hard to judge ghost shrimp hatchlings because some require salt, some need green water, some need what every baby shrimp needs. 

I think the best thing you can do is get some powder baby shrimp food from borneo wild or ebi ken EI or something. They probably can live off the biofilm found on the water lettuce roots for now.


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## Lee04 (Feb 11, 2012)

I have the "Palaemonetes paludosus" variety. I'll see what my lfs has for food when I go next. I have plenty of infusoria which should feed them for a while.

I hear the first week or two are the most critical, so I will monitor them. 
They should be full grown in about five weeks, according to what I read online. After many failed attempts, I find them when I least expect them


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Most ghost shrimp that cost $0.10 at the LFS will hatch and breed in freshwater. Even though they do have a larval stage it's very short compared to, say.. amanos or nerites. So as long as your filter isn't to strong or you have things that eat up larva they should technically develope into baby shrimps.

The steps you listed are correct though. You really only should run an airstone at night. Or you're wasting tons of CO2.


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## jeremyTR (Mar 21, 2012)

I wish my ghost shrimp's eggs would hatch.


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

If your tank is mature you likely don't need to feed the larvae at all. They'll eat whatever is floating around in there and develop into small ghost shrimp. You can try feeding them, but don't overdo it. If it's a new tank, the larvae don't have a very good chance of surviving, they really want lots of microorganisms floating around and such.


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## Lee04 (Feb 11, 2012)

diwu13 said:


> So as long as your filter isn't to strong or you have things that eat up larva they should technically develope into baby shrimps.
> The steps you listed are correct though. You really only should run an airstone at night. Or you're wasting tons of CO2.


Thank you for the info! The flow isn't too strong with the mesh covering (Whisper 10i). 



> I wish my ghost shrimp's eggs would hatch.


I hear it isn't that common for them to hatch in the aquarium and live. 
If they do live I will probably post more info here about the hatching process.



> If your tank is mature you likely don't need to feed the larvae at all. They'll eat whatever is floating around in there and develop into small ghost shrimp. You can try feeding them, but don't overdo it. If it's a new tank, the larvae don't have a very good chance of surviving, they really want lots of microorganisms floating around and such.


Yes, it's pretty mature. It's been running since september(?) '11. I don't have to change much of the water since it's such a low bioload. That might be why I have so much infusoria.


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## james0816 (Jun 26, 2008)

Lee04 said:


> There are only ghost shrimps and one glass catfish in the tank.


Patience grasshoppa....I think I hear him licking his chops from here.  It's only a matter of time before he finds the larvae and/or little shrimplets in the tank. Some may survive if you have good hiding spots.


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## triscene (Apr 7, 2012)

can you take a shot on the parents?
i get sometimes confused with distuingishing ghost shrimp and glass shrimp.
i have berried female of what i classify as Macrobrachium lanchesteri and larvae stage is okay in freshwater but feeding can be a problem as in early stage they require something nice as brine shrimp. so putting larvae on the same small tank and while they are very young attract both by the light to get to one spot, larvae gets feeding. both larvae and brine shrimp (artemia) are attracted by light.

do they look like these?
http://akvaforum.no/dyr.cfm?id=1129&tab=3&image=1257


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## MochaLatte (Nov 19, 2011)

I have ghost shrimp I think and a zillion babies. Never did anything special for them either other than remove the puffers and rasboras lol. I don't feed anything special either.


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## Lee04 (Feb 11, 2012)

james0816 said:


> Patience grasshoppa....I think I hear him licking his chops from here.  It's only a matter of time before he finds the larvae and/or little shrimplets in the tank. Some may survive if you have good hiding spots.


 I suspect that I may have to remove him to another tank. I've been feeding him well, so that might deter him a bit! 



> can you take a shot on the parents?
> i get sometimes confused with distuingishing ghost shrimp and glass shrimp.
> i have berried female of what i classify as Macrobrachium lanchesteri and larvae stage is okay in freshwater but feeding can be a problem as in early stage they require something nice as brine shrimp. so putting larvae on the same small tank and while they are very young attract both by the light to get to one spot, larvae gets feeding. both larvae and brine shrimp (artemia) are attracted by light.
> 
> ...


I'll definately try to get a shot for you! 

In the picture below (from link), I notice that the arms look different. I don't see particularly long arms in my shrimp (at least in the larvae). I also notice that the eyes in my shrimp are smaller and black. 
The eggs in some of the pictures are white. Mine had light green ones, also with the black dot eyes.
One picture shows a mother with clear shell markings. I don't see much of that coloration on my adults. 

Maybe that helps? I am amazed at how similar their structures are. No wonder they all share common names (glass, ghost, grass...)!








(Above © Håvard Støre Andresen)


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## Lee04 (Feb 11, 2012)

Here's a picture of the mom: 








The surface of the water blocks some movement from the filter:








I couldn't take pictures of the shrimplets, since they are so small. 
This video can help to illustrate, since they look very similar to mine. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_Lp3e6Ox-g


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## Lee04 (Feb 11, 2012)

Update:

Shrimplets are swimming! 
I see fewer than before, but I suspect they are hiding among the hairgrass and roots.


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

Even without predation you're going to have fairly heavy losses of the larvae. Are your babies swimming forward or backward? Typically larval shrimp swim backward but change to swimming forward and staying attached to surfaces once they've transformed into their benthic form.


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## triscene (Apr 7, 2012)

@Lee...my guess was probably right...from the picture it looks like Macrobrachium lanchesteri and i wouldnt calle them shrimplets but larvae 
would be happy to see updates how much of them you see as they require brine shrimp and these small foods..looking for good news that they transformed into juveniles within 4-5weeks..fingers crossed


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## Lee04 (Feb 11, 2012)

@jason: The ones I've seen have been swimming forward. They stay attached to surfaces? 

@triscene: You may be right about the species, I'm not entirely convinced with my own diagnosis. I've been feeding them crushed, boiled egg yolk that I dissolved in warm water. Let's see, counting the 22nd, this would be the 14th day. In as little as 2 weeks, I should be able to determine how many survived, provided that they are swimming around freely


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## triscene (Apr 7, 2012)

just went through 4-5 weeks torture with my lanchesteri larvae creatures 

they have transformed into juveniles few days ago. Survived in 3 pieces but this was mostly my mistake as in the beginning i had 12 litres tank and bad light attracting brine shrimp and larvae to one spot. Afterwards i put them into my 0.7 litres breeding box and used my mobile´s led light and this was success. Now they are eating baby shrimp food and doing well.
Hope to have eggs again soon and try it with bigger success.
Step afterwards i want to try japonicas


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## Markahsf (Feb 27, 2012)

I had hatchlings grow to full size without any special care and there were 7 harlequin rasboras in there. 

They all just hid in the java moss and once they got big enough, I fed them to my crayfish. 

If your tank is established like mine was, they shouldn't have a problem finding microorganisms to feed on. Good luck buddy. Getting them to drop eggs is definitely exciting! 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk 2.


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

I had a few .25¢ ghosts who ate their own larvae soon after I successfully got them into a free swimming state. 

I know these aren't ghost shrimp. Probably even more aggressive than ghosts, so that's one issue I see lol. 




From MABJ's iPhone
2G Fluval Spec ~ fauna and flora in the works!


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## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

Are all ghost shrimp low form breeders?


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

xenxes said:


> Are all ghost shrimp low form breeders?


I've had a lot of ghosts, and while I can't speak for the macros, yes all ghost shrimp you'll find in stores have larval stages. 


From MABJ's iPhone
2G Fluval Spec ~ fauna and flora in the works!


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## dougolasjr (Mar 3, 2010)

I've seen the same king of baby ghost shrimp from the ones I've bought from LFS.


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