baby cleaner shrimp?

L

lizardlady58

Guest
I have a fifty gallon salt tank that has fifty pounds of live rock, a few anemones which have split three times now, mushrooms, polyps and fish. I have a good healthy growth of various macroalgae as well which gets trimmed every week. Water is in good condition, no nitrates, etc. I have a few cleaner shrimp (ambionensis) in the tank that have produced eggs over time and I assumed the babies would never survive. Well, I have lots of assorted copepods in the standpipe box was observing them one day when I noticed about half a dozen little "shrimp". they have a white spot on their "heads" and have long stiff tails. they swim in a circling motion and are quite active and look nothing like the other critters in the tank. I do feed live rotifers on a daily basis to supplement the clam and other inverts. Would this extra feed contribute to the survival rate of the cleaner shrimp babies or are these little guys something else entirely? I would provide a picture but they are just too tiny to photograph with my camera. thanks
 
hunt

hunt

Active Member
if you are providing live rotifers, than they could survive as long as no fish eat them or they get sucked up into a filter or powerhead. What are all the fish that you have?
 
lmecher

lmecher

Member
I have several peppermint shrimp in my octopus tank. They have spawned a few times. We were able to film one. As soon as the other adult shrimp took notice they went wild eating them. Think about what we feed our fish, mysis, brine I'd think any newly hatched shrimp would be on the menu. If you really want to try rearing them, you'd have to move them to a tank without predators.
Here is my peppermint shrimp spawn filmed by my daughter while I held a flashlight. Disreguard my noisy house.
 
L

lizardlady58

Guest
The baby shrimp are in the overflow box at the bottom corner. As long as they stay there, they won't be sucked up by the standpipe. In response to your question, I have a yellow tang, a hippo tang, a flame angel, a royal gramma and a pair of clowns. I would like to get manderin gobies but I will wait until my copepod population has built up. I am culturing tigger pods and some unidentified copepods that I captured from my tank in hopes of producing a varied menu for my fish I have brine shrimp as well. The adult brine shrimp are producing babies on a regular basis which is nice. The fish love the babies.
 
hunt

hunt

Active Member
as long as the shrimp stay out of reach of fish and are eating you could raise them, this is alot easier in a seperate breeder tank or somthing.
 
L

lizardlady58

Guest
That is an interesting picture of the peppermint shrimp babies. I am going to try to siphon out the shrimp and put them in my copepod tank.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by lizardlady58
http:///forum/post/3232086
I noticed about half a dozen little "shrimp". they have a white spot on their "heads" and have long stiff tails. they swim in a circling motion and are quite active and look nothing like the other critters in the tank. I do feed live rotifers on a daily basis to supplement the clam and other inverts. Would this extra feed contribute to the survival rate of the cleaner shrimp babies or are these little guys something else entirely? I would provide a picture but they are just too tiny to photograph with my camera. thanks
I believe you have Mysid Shrimp. Cleaner Shrimp larvae are not very active. They hang upside down at the water surface waiting for food to bump into them. They will not survive in a normal reef tank more than a day.
 
hunt

hunt

Active Member
Just a off topic thing, one time when i was feeding frozen mysis shrimp, i dumped the shrimp into the water and i watched the fish eat and i noticed a living mysis shrimp swimming around the tank, then my clownfish ate it.
 
L

lizardlady58

Guest
I wonder were they are coming from. I have had live rock in the tank for about eight months now and this is the first time I have seen these little guys. Can they hitch hike in as eggs on the frozen mysid shrimp? I am sure that they haven't been in the tank (or at least the overflow box) all along since I observe the tank daily. Interesting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top