my cleaners had babies!!WHAT HAPNED' 2 THEM?

[fishheads]

while i was up looking for predators in my tank last night i noticed that both of my skunk cleaners that were preganant had babies at the same time..thousands of lil' shrimp everywhere...get up this morning,nothing!!!what the hell happpened?i'm thinking coral ,filter,fish...has anyone else had luck in raising cleaner shrimp..

[Woodstock]

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~delbeek/delb9.html

....Cleaner shrimps are hermaphroditic by nature, that is they possess
both male and female sex organs (Achterkamp, 1986a). As in most
shrimps, the larger, older specimen is usually the female but if the
female dies the male will increase in size and become a female. Other
reports have indicated that a pair can switch sex at any time (see
Wilkens, (1980) in Achterkamp, 1986a). Mating occurs immediately
after the female molts. The male mounts the female and deposits his
sperm into the sperm receptacle of the female. The female can store
the sperm for several months during which time she can use it to
fertilize her eggs (Barnes 1974). The eggs of Lysmata are bright
green in color and are carried below the abdomen, between the
swimmerettes (Achterkamp 1986a; Debelius 1984). The eggs hatch at
night and the larvae become part of the plankton. After a series of
molts the larvae settle to the bottom. The problem with raising the
larvae is their extremely small size. In most cases the larvae are
too small to use rotifers as a first food. Perhaps the use of vitamin
fortified unicellular algae such as Chlorella will be the answer.
In any event, breeding these shrimp is not a problem, it is the
raising of the larvae which is the road block at the moment.
Certainly, the person who is the first to successfully raise the
larvae will have a ready market for them! A few members of our club
have already had Lysmata breed in their tanks but only one has even
thought of attempting to raise them.

[Woodstock]

Peppermint shrimp are much easier to raise since their larva stage is much shorter. Here is a book explaining how to raise peppermint shrimp: http://www.lysmatapublishing.com/shrimp.html

[Warnberg]

Easy there wood... Peppermint shrimp are not easy to raise. It is very difficult for a hobbyist to keep them through the free floating larval stage and actually get them to settle.

Relax about your shrimp, it means you have a healthy tank and your fish just got some free nutritious food. But if you want to try to raise them the book Woodstock has recommended will tell you all about it.

[sasquatch]

Welcome to RS Fishheads! That is such a weird feeling, you see the shrimp fanning their eggs one day and all gone the next, we caught this marvel late one night like you did, having read the attempts of people trying to rear them didnt offer any solace seeing them get eaten up,oh well its the meaning of life thing, cheers to your healthy tank. Steve

[meandean45]

Mmmmm..... Fresh Shrimp!! Your' tank inhabitants probably enjoyed the meal, but I expect that your Eheim filters got most of the little shrimps, and are busily breaking them down into Ammonia, then Nitrite, and finally Nitrate. Have you had these filters on your' tank long-term? Do you have a Nitrate problem? I'm interested to know how often you have to clean them (I Have one on my 125 gal. FW tank, but never dared use a filter on my reef). I'd be interested in any info. you could pass along. Thanks, Dean