Cleaner Shrimp

[Eaval]

Hi Guys n Gals.

I have only had my Marine Tank setup for a couple of months (converted a tropical tank into marine to get a taster) but I have noticed that my Cleaner Shrimp have legs full of eggs. Is there any chance of growing these on ?

If so what is involved ?

I have been tropical fish in the past, live bearers and egg layers (in bubble nests). Any help much appreciated.

Eaval

[jamieb]

hi mate, it is possible to grow them on but it takes a while.
firstly how many shrimp do you have?
jamie

[Eaval]

I have got 2 Cleaner Shrimp and 1 Dancer Shrimp.

Both cleaner shrimp have got their rear legs full of eggs ... there are actually eggs hanging out they are carrying that many.

[jamieb]

how long have they had them? they'll start to go silvery (ish) when they're near to hatching. they always hatch at night so be ready for a night with no sleep! the best thing to do is to syphon them out using a torch to attract them and grow them on in a seperate tank.
BBS is good as a first food and should see them until they can handle larger food.
in the rearing tank use a wooden airstone for movment, not so much that they bounce the fry about but enough so that there is good movment in the tank.
water change every day and try to clear the bottom of detrius without sucking up all the fry!
keep doing this for about 120 days and hopefully you should end up with about 10 baby shrimp!
good luck and if ive missed anything just ask and ill try to find out the answer
jamie

[gregcope]

Jamie,

Have you raised some - or do you have any other info?

[Eaval]

Jamie,

Do they deposit the eggs ?

Or do the eggs hatch still inside the adults ?

Photo of the more white eggs attached ... any ideas how much longer till they hatch ?

<a href="http://img178.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cleanershrimpeggsrq1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/104/cleanershrimpeggsrq1.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>

[Eaval]

ok, Im no good with links to images hehe ... attempt 2

http://img178.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cleanershrimpeggsrq1.jpg

[jamieb]

gregcope, ive only raised them to 20-30 days although in my defence they never just died, i was always experimenting with something that killed them :o what info are you looking for?

Eaval, they hold the eggs in their swimmerettes (sp) until they're ready to hatch then release them as larvae (at about 2 in the morning!)
sorry i cant see the photo just getting "page cannot be displayed"

jamie

[Eaval]

hmm ... does the link on attempt 2 not work for anyone ?
It links ok for me ... but it does take a min or 2 to load

[gregcope]

gregcope, ive only raised them to 20-30 days although in my defence they never just died, i was always experimenting with something that killed them :o what info are you looking for?

Eaval, they hold the eggs in their swimmerettes (sp) until they're ready to hatch then release them as larvae (at about 2 in the morning!)
sorry i cant see the photo just getting "page cannot be displayed"

jamie

Most of the posts I can find never seem to suggest people get to raising them beyond 100 odd days. young getting stuck at certain moulting points seems to be an issue, probabaly related to diet.

Apparently TMC had done it, but without any referances this is just rumour.

Greg

[jamieb]

yeah TMC think they do a lot of things but never publish anything about it.
aparently theres some sort of trigger for the last molt into baby shrimp, a few people have managed it using coraline algae, purple up, NSW and various other triggers.
an aquarium in hawaii seemed to have the best results but they where pumping NSW straight in, through the vats they were using and back out again, not something you can replicate in your house (at least not easily!!)
jamie