Breeding skunk cleaners

[j-cal]

I am planning on setting up a 29 (in a very bare/"sterile" way) for proping skunk cleaners. Iknow that they are hermaphrodidic and such and having 2 that are well fed/secure often leads to egg carrying and such. I plan on having 1 piece of live rock or lace just for security purposes. To prefvent all the juveniles from getting eaten, but avoiding removing th eparents, could i put a few small "small world" plastic cage sin there? the grating would prevent adults from getting inside. inside of thm i could place netting as surface areas. I could also feed the cages seperately. Think it would work? Any other pointers? I def wanna do this right

 

[royalshrimp]

its almost imposible to rear the larvea:nope:

 

[j-cal]

why?

 

[fishman830]

could you section off like half the tank with egg crate,sot hat the fry go in the other side.. when they find it

 

[j-cal]

Thats what the dmall mworlds would be for. the grating on the top is very small....id THINK small enough for baby shrimp to fit through but not adults. why else are they tough to raise? the pan was to just put a little food in the container every night and remove uneaten with a water change in the morning...think i got a chance or should i scrap it. i hreat that skunks in tanks dont have success in baby shrimp growing up cuz of all the stuff that can eat them. i thought this would work

 

[dbgt]

don't use the live rock I have tried it before all the pod animals will kill your shrimp.a seperator with a refugium containing plants only is what I am going to try next. I may use a skilter filter as well on another divider side.(I know it probably sounds crazy) what are you going to feed yours?

 

[kc36330]

to have successful luck in doing it you would be far better off trying it in a fuge setup rather then a tank with just a LR. the larva have 7 stages of planktonic form before they metamorphous into actual shrimp. during this time they are very delicate and weak and can be damaged by any filtration you have in the tank (even UGF) or contact with the side of the tank, rockwork, etc.....
in a fuge full of macro they will have a better chance at making the full morph. when first hatched they will eat newly hatched baby brine shrimp or rotifers, nothing much bigger. crushed flake food works as well but water quality can go quick. also the length of time the 7 morphs take is dependant on temp and water quality.
you also need to remove the parent shortly after the egg hatching (7-11 days for egg hatching). they will molt very shortly after the hatching so you need to get them moved before the molt, they are easily killed during the molting time by you moving them.
the metamorphosis stage can be as long as 80 days so know what your getting yourself into.
kc

 

[j-cal]

I cant find a good resource so wherever you go your info would give me great spring break reading material. Are the larvae free floating or are the "land motile" (i made that phrase up obviously)? If they arent floating, why wouldnt some migrate to "enclosed areas." I understand it wouldnt be many, but im not looking to supply the world...just do something neat. I have plenty of macro that I can toss into the tank to make it more like a fuge, but i dont wanna add LR cuz of Pods and such.

 

[bang guy]

Scarlet Cleaner Larvae live in the water column for about 3 months. They are poor swimmers and extremely delicate.

 

[kc36330]

i dont have a source for the information i just read and learned over the years trying to do the same thing your wanting to do. in the 25+ yrs i've been into marine tanks i've only mannaged to raise 3 larva to shrimp that i know of.
the larva are free floaters and remain in the water collum.
hth
kc