Pregnant Coral Banded Shrimp, Babies

[Lazydacres]

Okay, so this is the second "batch" my coral banded has carried. Right now, the eggs have hatched and Momma shrimp is still carrying them on her belly. You can see the little silver babies and their tiny little eyeballs.

I have a hospital tank now, if I caught Momma shrimp and put her in there with an airstone, and wait for her to release the babies, then what?

Would I have to catch the male too? I am afraid if I take her out of the DT and then put her back in after she releases the babies, that the male and her may fight?

What would I feed the babies? I just hate the thought of them becoming fish food when they are released like last time!

 

[Eric]

I don't know about the care of these but that is awesome they are breeding for you

I would try contacting Woodstock or reading through her threads and see how she is rasing food for her clownfish fry, I am guessing they would eat the same type of food.

 

[Lazydacres]

Well, I missed the last babies, she released them the night of my last post.

This morning she has a new set of eggs. I am going to keep an eye on her this time and when they hatch and she is carrying the babies, I am going to put them in my hospital tank and see what happens.

 

[jcgardner]

Good luck on breeding them. It is always exciting to see people having success like that.

 

[Adalius]

 

[Lazydacres]

I didn't really have much to take pics of, but if you want, I can sure add a picture to the thread so it is no longer worthless, lol.

Here she is, cleaning her eggs

The Happy Couple

Here she is, holding her little babies in her swimmerlegs. They are no longer blue and I wish the camera could have captured it, but you could see a teeny tiny pair of eyes on each little silver baby. It was fascinating!

I have to figure out what to feed the babies, I am going to capture her when it is time for her to release the babies and put her and babies in the 8 gallon hospital tank and run just an airstone til they get a little bit bigger, if any survive. NONE survive when she releases them into the 56 gallon DT, the fish love the instant fresh food bar.

 

[Adalius]

I've never bred shrimp, but I recall reading that someone fed them that powdered fry food you can get for feeding fish fry.

Here's an article, albeit for raising peppermint larvae, but it might be helpful.
It goes against what Eric was mentioning above regarding feeding phyto & rotifers like you would clownfish fry, but I don't know that it can't be done that way either. Again, no experience in this realm personally.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2004/feature.htm

 

[SeaMunky]

This thread is cool...is there a visable way of telling male from female?...

 

[Adalius]

Aside from her having a sac full of eggs?

I don't know that there is an easy way before they're carrying a clutch, but I never really looked into it either...

 

[Wicked Manchey]

mine has a green belly :s ….do i need to put in air bubbles if i put it in a different tank?? after how many days will the babies hatch?

 

[die4lulu]

i dont know if this is the same for coral banded shrimp, but shrimp at hermaphrodites... so dont be surprised if ur "male" has a batch of eggs too! LOL

 

[catran]

Congratulations! Try to feed her babies live rotifers. Be very careful that the air is not too high. There's also a dry food you can try when they get a few days old. Are you serious about keeping and possibly hatching them over and over? You will have to clean out the tank by siphoning the bottom with a very small (airline tube) to clean the old food out. (Check the bottom of the bucket for any babies you may have accidentally sucked out). I ask about continuing to breed only because there is a website for foods: Welcome to Reef Nutrition

 

[fata1ity]

Not trying to burst your bubble or anything but it is extremely difficult to breed shrimp, in fact I don't even know of a single successful person.

 

[redneckgearhead]

Not trying to burst your bubble or anything but it is extremely difficult to breed shrimp, in fact I don't even know of a single successful person.

Still worth trying. I say go for it and keep us posted! If one survives that would be more than if you just left them in the tank.

 

[soco]

Awesome! I cant wait to follow along with this one! Congrats

 

[Jake Levi]

I would offer them otohime along with the phyto-fed rots, water quality is a big factor in raising all shrimp.

Most shrimp have been bred, from machrobrachium and various pennaeus to the lysmata, and others along with a very few cleaner shrimp. The cleaner shrimp have had the lowest results due to the long met time.

While you wait for the next set of eggs its a time do a LOT of homework, Breeders Registry, other groups, the books available, wikipedia, and as many close relatives as you can find out about. Coral Banded have been bred and larvae raised, I dont remember who or when.