luu78
Well-Known Member
Hi everyone. I cant hold my urge to rear ornamental shrimps back any longer and decide to ask for assistance from the members from this forum for shrimp larvae donations. Im looking for shrimp larvae to try to rear them for experimental reasons. Im looking for larvae of peppermint shrimps, skunk cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp, sexy shrimp and or mantis shrimp or whatever ornamental shrimps that are holding a fertilized egg clutch which you dont want to rear yourself.
I now have a few varieties of live foods on hand which I think could take my experiments further that previously tried in 2011-2013. In those 3 years, Ive sucessfully reared the followings:
1. locally netted glass shrimp from larvae to post metamorphosis into juvenille glass shrimps in 2011.
2. Berghia nudibranchs from egg ribbons to 1/4" or more juveniles. A BRS member actually bought my whole juvenile Berghia culture once I depleted my Aptaisia a while back.
3. Bangaii cardinals from eggs in the male's mouth to juveniles eating baby brines.
4. Dwarf seahorses from hatching to juveniles. All of them unfortunately died the time I was stuck at the casino for a couple days and the baby brine shrimp nauplii ran out in my 2 liter continuos feed slow drip dosing container
Peevious unsucessful rearings: (I plan to rear these again in the future as well as time allows)
1. Common lined seahorses H. Erectus - I got 1 out of 500 to live around 1 month until I accidentally ran out of brine shrimp nauplii. They do eat frozen cyclopeze as well. Another neglect on my end.
2. Obviously...peppermint and cleaner shrimp - gonna keep on trying...
I have the followings live feed (of various sizes from nauplii to adults):
Live food (microalgae and zooplanktons) available on hand:
Live phytoplanktons: (to culture rotifers and copepod nauplii etc.. for feeding shrimp larvae)
1. PhycoPure Reef Blend
2. PhycoPure Copepod Blend
3. Nannochroposis - although it is inadequate in terms of nutritional value for metamorphosis. I was able to rear cleaner shrimp larvae to Day 23 back in 2013 by feeding them newly hatched baby brines and various sizes of a few day old baby brine shrimps gut loaded with Selcon and Vita Chem and fed with live Nannochroposis.
4. Diatoms found on the tank glass. I decide to use this solely as a supplemental copepod feed as well since I always see them stuck to my glass where the diatoms buildup. The copepods are reproducing so this diatom must be a viable feed for them. Thats my observation at least.
For live zooplankton:
1. Rotifers
2. Tigger pods from Reef Nutrition - plan to feed mainly nauplii first few days of rearing then gradually up the copepod feed size to partially include adults since the larvae only need to eat 1 adult copepod, an equivalent of about 10 copepod nauplii. I try to make each "BUMP INTO the copepod" more worthwhile for the shrimp larvae. I noticed by Day 15, the larvae have the capability to cling on to its prey much more quicker and have somewhat control over their claws. The thing is...they are perfectly healthy and the next day 90% of the larvae died then the rest died soon after which I think relates to low nutritional intake from previous 15 days. I plan to feed the shrimp larvae a variety of live food zooplanton nauplii and live microalgae of various species simultaneously to increase TRAFFIC so that the shrimp larvae can make more frequent contacts with the food and different larvae have different growth rates (some are smaller and some are bigger...some are weaker and some are stronger) so variety of food sizes SHOULD give me and the shrimp larvae a BETTER chance.
For filtering the water with no disturbance to the larvae..I slowly siphon the water via disposable bamboo chopticks. Yeah thats right CHOPSTICKS. Im resourceful. If you guys ever in need of making air bubbles in a hurry and scramble for an airstone...give the disposable bamboo chopstick a try. Im sure you will have 2nd thoughts about chopstick everytime you order Chinese takeouts from then on. Hehe..its free and personally I think it works better, more sanitary and more cost effective than airstones. I just break of the clogged part of the chopstick and continue my siphon. I control the rate of siphon with an air valve so no so strong that the shrimp larvae gets pulled in and damage their limps. They kinda need those intact for survival I think.
Anyways, I will thankfully accept larvae donations or happy to trade a frag of coral for the larvae. If you plan to help, please place your flashlight on top of your tank for bout 10 mins on hatch night and once a good amount of larvae gather round under the flashlight, scoop the larvae out with a cup and repeat the process until youre tired or you want some leftover as a treat for your tank residences. Hehe... I will pick up the next day after work. Most should be fine around 4" of tank water without aeration until I pick them up the next day. Ive kept a few peppermint larvae in disposable cups for almost a week without the need for airstone whatsoever recently from my now MIA pepermint in DT. If you are in need of corals to restock your tank, let me know as I will gladly offer what I have available for trade.
Thanks everyone for your help!
Ben
Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk
I now have a few varieties of live foods on hand which I think could take my experiments further that previously tried in 2011-2013. In those 3 years, Ive sucessfully reared the followings:
1. locally netted glass shrimp from larvae to post metamorphosis into juvenille glass shrimps in 2011.
2. Berghia nudibranchs from egg ribbons to 1/4" or more juveniles. A BRS member actually bought my whole juvenile Berghia culture once I depleted my Aptaisia a while back.
3. Bangaii cardinals from eggs in the male's mouth to juveniles eating baby brines.
4. Dwarf seahorses from hatching to juveniles. All of them unfortunately died the time I was stuck at the casino for a couple days and the baby brine shrimp nauplii ran out in my 2 liter continuos feed slow drip dosing container
Peevious unsucessful rearings: (I plan to rear these again in the future as well as time allows)
1. Common lined seahorses H. Erectus - I got 1 out of 500 to live around 1 month until I accidentally ran out of brine shrimp nauplii. They do eat frozen cyclopeze as well. Another neglect on my end.
2. Obviously...peppermint and cleaner shrimp - gonna keep on trying...
I have the followings live feed (of various sizes from nauplii to adults):
Live food (microalgae and zooplanktons) available on hand:
Live phytoplanktons: (to culture rotifers and copepod nauplii etc.. for feeding shrimp larvae)
1. PhycoPure Reef Blend
2. PhycoPure Copepod Blend
3. Nannochroposis - although it is inadequate in terms of nutritional value for metamorphosis. I was able to rear cleaner shrimp larvae to Day 23 back in 2013 by feeding them newly hatched baby brines and various sizes of a few day old baby brine shrimps gut loaded with Selcon and Vita Chem and fed with live Nannochroposis.
4. Diatoms found on the tank glass. I decide to use this solely as a supplemental copepod feed as well since I always see them stuck to my glass where the diatoms buildup. The copepods are reproducing so this diatom must be a viable feed for them. Thats my observation at least.
For live zooplankton:
1. Rotifers
2. Tigger pods from Reef Nutrition - plan to feed mainly nauplii first few days of rearing then gradually up the copepod feed size to partially include adults since the larvae only need to eat 1 adult copepod, an equivalent of about 10 copepod nauplii. I try to make each "BUMP INTO the copepod" more worthwhile for the shrimp larvae. I noticed by Day 15, the larvae have the capability to cling on to its prey much more quicker and have somewhat control over their claws. The thing is...they are perfectly healthy and the next day 90% of the larvae died then the rest died soon after which I think relates to low nutritional intake from previous 15 days. I plan to feed the shrimp larvae a variety of live food zooplanton nauplii and live microalgae of various species simultaneously to increase TRAFFIC so that the shrimp larvae can make more frequent contacts with the food and different larvae have different growth rates (some are smaller and some are bigger...some are weaker and some are stronger) so variety of food sizes SHOULD give me and the shrimp larvae a BETTER chance.
For filtering the water with no disturbance to the larvae..I slowly siphon the water via disposable bamboo chopticks. Yeah thats right CHOPSTICKS. Im resourceful. If you guys ever in need of making air bubbles in a hurry and scramble for an airstone...give the disposable bamboo chopstick a try. Im sure you will have 2nd thoughts about chopstick everytime you order Chinese takeouts from then on. Hehe..its free and personally I think it works better, more sanitary and more cost effective than airstones. I just break of the clogged part of the chopstick and continue my siphon. I control the rate of siphon with an air valve so no so strong that the shrimp larvae gets pulled in and damage their limps. They kinda need those intact for survival I think.
Anyways, I will thankfully accept larvae donations or happy to trade a frag of coral for the larvae. If you plan to help, please place your flashlight on top of your tank for bout 10 mins on hatch night and once a good amount of larvae gather round under the flashlight, scoop the larvae out with a cup and repeat the process until youre tired or you want some leftover as a treat for your tank residences. Hehe... I will pick up the next day after work. Most should be fine around 4" of tank water without aeration until I pick them up the next day. Ive kept a few peppermint larvae in disposable cups for almost a week without the need for airstone whatsoever recently from my now MIA pepermint in DT. If you are in need of corals to restock your tank, let me know as I will gladly offer what I have available for trade.
Thanks everyone for your help!
Ben
Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk
