So one of my peppermint shrimps has a very fat belly. Definitely looks pregnant based on pictures I’ve seen. Don’t think I’ll be trying to raise them as it looks like it is pretty damn difficult and too much work. Just figured I’d let ya guys know.
could you seperate it in a breeder net? would be cool to see if it gave birth. how hard to raise shrimp fry?
Can’t remember if you have a fuge or not. If so see if you can out the shrimp in the fuge until it gives birth, out some bridal veil over any intakes to pumps or return line. Can’t hurt to see what happens. If not you can always out it in MY fuge to see what happens Saint:)
From what I’ve read it is about 50 days from hatching to juvenile, all this must be done in a separate tank and need to be fed small enough food they can eat and adequate filtration without sucking up the little guys.
A thread that was interesting to follow from day 1 to ~60 when the last of his new born shrimp died.
http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f186/true-peppermint-shrimp-pregnant-93158-8.html
Another article that I haven’t read fully but looks fairly informative.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2004/feature.htm
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:3, topic:955”]
Can’t remember if you have a fuge or not. If so see if you can out the shrimp in the fuge until it gives birth, out some bridal veil over any intakes to pumps or return line. Can’t hurt to see what happens. If not you can always out it in MY fuge to see what happens Saint:)[/quote]
Don’t have a fuge (yet), but the peppermints would probably eat all the good things in your fuge. If you still want I can try to separate the peppermint into a 10g and collect the eggs that hatch…
The shrimp should be hatching/laying the eggs shortly as we noticed the eggs about a week ago and it looks like the time to hatch is usually around 7-10 days.
Would definitely be fun to try. There should be enough fuge critters in the DT to keep the fuge populated.
Wonder if you could load a 10g with a tin of LR to and LS to cover bio filtration. Figure a small water change every other day should keep the water fresh enough for the baby shrimp.
There is a book out there that anyone interested in raising shrimp should read. Its called, “How to raise and Train Your Peppermint Shrimp”. I cant remember the author off the top of my head, but it has an in depth description of what is required to breed these and other shrimp.
Well, one of these nights your tank will be fed a bunch of live fish food. shrimp larvae. they release the larvae from the abdomen swimmerettes after dark. you can spot the night when the mother shrimp spends a lot fo time fluffing and airating them and can hardly fold them under. i used to keep 4 peps and 2 cleaners in my 75. once they start spawning, you can expect a new batch eveery 21 days. so with 6 shrimp , my tank and fish got a high protein treat every few nights. I tried raising them for a while. you can catch them with a turkey baster or move the mother to a small holding tank with air stone until they are released. and start feeding new hatched brine shrimp. they go through about 5 morph phases. i think cleaners and fire shrimp have more stages. but i only suceeded in getting to 21 days. but i used to corespond with a fellow that sucessfully raised several batches of fire shrimp to maturity. now that is worth the price and effort.
Yea, it doesn’t seem to be worth the effort with the peppermints. If the fireshrimp/cleaners have even more stages, I’m assuming they are even harder to raise. That’s great to hear every month or so the tank gets a nice ‘free’ meal. Even though I still suspect the peppermints in the mysterious disappearance of the yellow goby and lettuce nudibranch (they both disappeared same night). Right after they disappeared I noticed the prego peppermint.
[quote=“IanH, post:10, topic:955”]
Even though I still suspect the peppermints in the mysterious disappearance of the yellow goby and lettuce nudibranch[/quote]
Peppermint shrimp are dastardly creatures, capable of unspeakable acts. SnowMan
No, the peps cant or dont harm the little fishies. but they can and do pick the bones of dead ones. just like the hermit crabs do to clean up any waste or dead meat lying on the sand bed. Just another scavenger.
If you have a male/female pair of shrimp they will keep spawning every 21 days. but often a female alone can continue to produce larvae without a male around. they store a supply of sperm for future fertilization. and can prduce several more batches of larvae on their own.
Yes the fire shrimp are very hard to raise. I havent heard of many people or aquafarms doing it on a regular basis. but from a profit point of view, fire shrimp sell for big bucks and are worth the effort if you can raise large batches of them. like 100-150 at a time. or more. its just very tedious and time consuming constantly raising live food for them, daily water changes and cleaning. Mostly they are raised through metamorphosis in small 1 or 2 gallon plastic food containers with rounded corners inside. and drip tubes for filtration and air stones. then moved to larger, shallow tanks to grow out. it takes 6-9 months to raise store size adults for sale with lots of losses along the way.
ya i dont think the pep shrimp was to blame for disapperances but gobys are really bad for jumping out. as i had 2 diamond gobys and a yellow goby and fire fish carpet dive on me.
Double check images if you can of pregnant shrimp and shrimp with parasitic isopods. Shrimp that sometimes look pregnant are actually infected with isopods such as Epicaridae sp.
Sorry took me a while to respond to this, I’ve been spending, “time with family” and job searching and crap. If you are able to collect the larvae I may be able to raise them for you. I’ve always wanted to. I have that book on raising and “training” shrimp somewhere and I’ve read into it hard core in the past. I’ve also got a lot of foods which are raised in commercial shrimp breeding, some of which are hard to come by. I used to have a mated pair of some blue or purple coral banded shrimps which are extremely rare in the hobby.
Jon
If I can collect I’ll definitely let anyone who wants give raising a shot, provided the larva makes the transport.
Surprisingly the pep DIDN’T eat the missing nudi. Apparently the other nudi was hiding this evening and my dad thought he might have gone through the HOB overflow and into the wet/dry. Opened the drip tray and there was a nudi stuck inside. Threw him inside, floated around and finally came to…Then the other nudi came out from his hiding… So the nudi that was in the drip tray was the missing one from a WEEK ago! Anyway hes retarded now as he went into the overflow…AGAIN.
Hopefully he learns this time.
they never lurn…
What type of nudi?
Lettuce
That is technically a sea slug, not a nudibranch.
Is it something like Elysia crispata? May want to make sure you have a decent amount of algae to keep it alive in the long run.
Many species of true nudibranchs do not do well in captivity. I came across some recently that would do great in most of our tanks. They’ll also help control the population of those pesky soft corals as that is all they will eat. 
If anyone else wants some let me know.
PS, I love my qt. 