Sexy shrimp larvae rearing adventure

[luu78]

Hi everyone,

I have a small group of 8 sexy shrimp broodstock that recently started to breed. So far, the biggest female has berried and released the larvae twice. I missed the first larvae release but was prepared this time around. Last night, I separated her into a Pho soup container and clipped it to the side of my tank. Tonight, she released the larvae and thus trigger the beginning of my first attempt in sexy shrimp rearing adventure. I’ve been hatching BBS daily in preparation for this and been feeding my reef tanks with them prior to her larvae release. I cleaned and setup a small DIY Kreisel tank I made years ago to raise baby lined seahorses and skunk cleaner shrimps. This time, I modified it to run on a small air pump instead of a return pump. From my reading, hobbyists only mentioned about feeding the larvae newly hatched BBS. I went a little further and added Tigger pods and rotifers as well as Reef Nutrition SDaquarist phytos as well as some live phytoplankton for a more well-rounded diet and to keep the critters alive in there. Let the adventure begin, join me and see how far we can get the larvae to progress.

 

[kgstei]

Cool. Were you able to raise skunk cleaners?

 

[luu78]

Cool. Were you able to raise skunk cleaners?

Nope, they died a day after. I’ve not been able to harvest their larvae which they constantly carry.

 

[luu78]

The other two females are also carrying eggs…I’m hoping for a continuous larvae production to keep the rearing tank in continuous use. We will see what will happen.

 

[ChrisV]

Very cool, Ben! I think I saw a thread where someone pulled this off in Vietnam recently. Was on r2r.

 

[Edp251]

This is very cool Ben. Thanks for sharing!

 

[PSU4ME]

Mad scientist, I love it! Very challenging to raise anything in this hobby so good luck!

 

[luu78]

Found these guys hatching right after lights out….

 

[luu78]

Haven’t seen a single larvae latching onto a BBS, but there are Reef Nutrition phytoplanktons and live rotifers in the water column and they must be eating something since they’re getting bigger, darker and more visible now. Hopefully they will start eating BBS in a few more days…I do daily 2L water change, with this WC rig I make…slow and steady does the trick, I trimmed the pickup tube to desired length and it breaks the siphon after removing 2L, so I can go about doing my other reefing things without worrying about emptying the tank on my floor. In the past, I used to siphon thru an airstone or a bamboo chopstick just to get the water out and keep all the larvae in but it’s slower than this sponge method. I also uploaded some videos of their daily progress up my YouTube channel which I will share a link below..but I have difficulties adding more videos to my upload list from YouTube. Not a pro at it…let me know if you know how to resolve this upload video dilemma of mine. Thanks

Here’s my YouTube link to the grow-out progress. I will upload more when YouTube allows me to add more videos.

Day 2:

 

[luu78]

Hi everyone,

There was not much to report last several days since mass die-off occurred a few days ago and I thought the last of them were dead yesterday. But, while cleaning and prepping the tank this afternoon for the next batch of hatchlings within the next few nights, I found 2-3 surviving larvae. It is day 11 and I’m so excited about this. Though, I will try to double the volume of water change starting with the next group of larvae. I didn’t place it under the microscope to minimize time out of tank since I only have 2-3 surviving larvae. Cheers

Here’s a short clip of it on YouTube:

 

[Drichards]

Congratulations, this is a win

 

[luu78]

Sorry for being unclear, the surviving larvae have not settled. It will be a little more than 2 more weeks before they settle if they can hang in there…

 

[ChrisV]

Sorry for being unclear, the surviving larvae have not settled. It will be a little more than 2 more weeks before they settle if they can hang in there…

Very neat!

 

[luu78]

Hello, it’s day 15 and two are visibly alive and shrimping around…cheers


Day 15: 2 survivors….

 

[Aquatic Nerd]

Hello, it’s day 15 and two are visibly alive and shrimping around…cheers


Day 15: 2 survivors….

Any update on this? I'd always wanted to raise sexy shrimp

 

[garyl]

While your survivability rate might seem a little depressing, I wonder if the survivability rate in the wild is much more?

Great work!

 

[Aquatic Nerd]

While your survivability rate might seem a little depressing, I wonder if the survivability rate in the wild is much more?

Great work!

Survival rate in the wild is RIDICULOUSLY low. That's why they have so many offspring