Baby Cleaner Shrimps...!!!

[trader_best]

hi gurus,

recently i saw eggs under my two cleaner n always wonder why nvr see them hatch...

then few nite ago i saw a lot of white dots floating around in my tank n saw these very small thingy wirrgling around n realise that they are baby cleaner shrimps, kicking alive!!!

so last nite i spent 2 hours, caught them out n put them in a breeding net....

do u think it will work n will the babies survive if i feed them plankton?

anyone can advise or got experience on this?

[jesperlam]

Wow!!! Thats great!!!...hope that ur BCS will grow but its hard to keep them in captivity...

But if it does survive hope can get a few from u...

[blacknails]

Yeah congrats!! I know how good it feels to see your LS give birth!!

But unlike me I hope your baby CLeaners survive!!

[trader_best]

thanks brothers....

will monitor them closely and keep ya guys updated...!!!

[Morgan]

Would advise you to keep them in a separate tank and feed them with plenty of live phtoplankton/rotifers

Do not use net to catch them. once damaged they are as good as dead.

It take about 100+ days before they settled and become mini shrimps. (provided they make it to that stage )

Good luck

[Cookiemunster]

You're going to have to soak them in phyto solution. They cannot eat anything else. Keep them separate from the tank in a plastic container and fill it with green live phyto.

[timzhiquan]

whatever you do, it's going to take a lot of time and effort to grow them into adult shrimps. might as well use them for coral food.

[Kalib]

Yes, it takes alot of effort to raise them. But they often get pregnant, so even if this round fails you have another try.

I've been doing research on trying to raise them but I haven't tried it yet, still don't feel i'm ready.

Here's a webpage that has some info on the breeding cycle and signs that indicate whether the shrimp is going to give birth soon etc.

The larvae are fragile, what should be done is to use light to attract them to a corner of the tank, then use a tube to siphon them out. After which, the seperate tank should not have any filter/powerhead inlets or outlets which can damage the larvae.

So, the 2 possible setups i guess would be a sand bed + LR or using a UGF. THe other types of filtrations methods(hang-on,canister etc.) can damage the larvae from what i know. A smaller tank in this case might be more practical, so you can increase the concentration of food in the water easily. However, i read that if there's too much food, it may cause the larvae to actualyl lose the interest to eat(not sure if its bullshit or not ).

As for food, can't really advice here but baby brine shrimps are not recommended. Not too sure of what should be the right diet. However, i remember reading on the net about this Waikiki Aquarium which had successfully raised cleaner shrimp larvae. They keep the larvae in some holding cell then fresh seawater is released in, it was believed the larvae took food from the fresh seawater and ate it rather than eat the food fed by the aquarium staff. Will try and digup the websites and post it up.

[YzF]

My cleaner give birth like 4 times(i happen to see the babies) already.. tried LR on sand bed in small tank with continuous stream of bubbles.. didn't make it. Die in like 2 days or so.. dun know what to feed them...

[FuEl]

At first I thought cleaner shrimp larvae fed on phyto too...but after reading up I was wrong. In captivity they will have to be fed enriched baby brine shrimp.

[Kalib]

Here's the website that mentioned about how the guys at Waikiki did it.

Don't think anyone of us can have limitless supply of fresh seawater.

Maybe next round they hatch i will try to raise them using enriched bbs and see how things go.

[jesperlam]

Bioplankton can or not??? or GPs???...

[trader_best]

the two of them are now in a breeding net, in my sump....waiting for one of them to give birth,usually they give birth at night....going to feed them phytoplanton or zooplanton and see how lor....

so far they have given birth more than 8 times liaoz...

[FuEl]

Bioplankton can or not??? or GPs???...

Don't think so...baby cleaner shrimps are active hunters..they need live food like artemia.