Breeding Palaemon Elegans (Mediterrane Rock Pool Shrimp) Guide

[Tavero]

Hi,
Im going to post a breeding guide of palaemon elegans shrimps here. Two females are preparing for spawning so if you are interested you may want to stick with me.

This breeding guide will be interchangable for every kind of shrimps but i stick elegans because:
- With cleaner shrimp we are limited to one pair per tank unless you want to witness some battle royale. So why bother.
- I have heard horror stories about peppermint shrimp cleaning LPS corals and nems of its fleshy parts. I kinda like these fleshy parts.
- Sexy shrimps were fine until a large female suddenly left the harem group around my nem to live a seclusive life inside a sps. Guess the sps was tasty enough for it to walk to the other side of the tank and deal with loneliness. The damage wasn't big but having 50 of these guys in my tank would decimate my sps.
- the availability of other shrimps is kinda bad.

Breeding setup is 1 g with an areation line without air stone and heating foil. As soon as the eggs turn lighter in color (after ~10 days) they are ready for spawning and i catch the shrimps from my reef tank. This is the hardest part of the whole breeding guide. Thankfully these females cooperated with me this time.

 

[Peace River]

Good luck! Cheering for you and for them!!!

 

[Tavero]

Spawning from first female has failed because the larvae were eaten by the second one (probably). After just the second one was left in the box the spawning was sucessful today.
Overall a pretty small spawn of only 50 larvae, but it is the first time for this female.

Live phytoplankton is added until the water has a light green color. The larvae are fed with freshly hatched artemia and Vitellus artemia cysts several times each day from now on.

 

[bnord]

this will be fun to follow - thanks for doing it and making us smarter

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Spawning from first female has failed because the larvae were eaten by the second one (probably). After just the second one was left in the box the spawning was sucessful today.
Overall a pretty small spawn of only 50 larvae, but it is the first time for this female.

Live phytoplankton is added until the water has a light green color. The larvae are fed with freshly hatched artemia and Vitellus artemia cysts several times each day from now on.

What species of live phyto do you use?

 

[Tavero]

What species of live phyto do you use?

Nannochloropsis salina. The phyto isn't used for food but i experienced increased sucess raising the larvae with it. Maybe it improves water quality.

The food quality and quantity is overall the most important parameter for the larvae. When I've only used freshly hatched artemia very few larvae reached the shrimp metamorphosis stage. But a lot of dry food is too coarse or heavy and sinks very fast. So I did a lot of experiments. I even tried frozen food which crashed the whole spawn.

Now i am using live artemia, vitellus artemia cysts and additionally after one week, organix flake food (USA brand name is omega one marine sea flakes i think)

 

[Tavero]

Most of the larvae have already molted once and are now 3 mm long

 

[Tavero]

I have now added the mentioned flake food to my feeding line up. The flakes need to be ground to a coarse powder though.
The mayority of larvae is still alive and well fed (a full stomach has the same color as the food).

The largest female in my tank is now pregnant again. She was already part of several breeding projects and has learned to avoid the net...sadly.

 

[Tavero]

I have to admit i am not as disciplined with feeding as i was with my last spawn (I have still +20 juvenile shrimps in my nursery tank that i have no idea what to do with as soon as they reach adulthood).
Nethertheless, the larvae are now 5 mm large and still well fed... probably because of my diverse feeding schedule.

 

[Tavero]

Btw larvae are photosensitive and attracted to light

 

[Tavero]

After reading another thread about trying to raise shrimps i think i should show my brine shrimp hatchery, because there are certain pros compared to the regular bottle method.

Eggs are put into the water at the edge and hatched bbs swim to the light in the center.I have 3d printed several of them.

- bbs separate from egg shells on their own. No soiling of the breeding tank with egg shells
- no need to wait until a full batch has hatched, but I can alway take the fresh ones from the center, the wait a few more hours until the rest has hatched.
- small footprint. I can run several bbs hatcheries on my shelf.
- fast to clean and set (10 seconds) up and only needs 20 ml salt water.

With this setup it is actually possible to have 5+ bbs feedings per day with minimal effort

 

[Tavero]

I could finally observe the first transformation from larvae into a shrimp yesterday. This means the duration from spawning to juvenile shrimp was 3,5 weeks. I only have around 10 larvae left though. Most of them died due to starvation. That's too bad but I really can't find the motivation right now to feed them several times a day when im losing one zoa colony after the other in my main tank. Even looking in my tank is very frustrating right now so after the shrimps are done i will take a break from breeding and posting until the situation seems to be better.

 

[Tavero]

This is a shrimp from my last spawn. Transfered into a nursery tank on 28.08.2022. Right now they are around 1.5cm in size.

 

[Tavero]

Well then. This run is over. In the end 6 larvae have sucessfully transformed. Not bad for neglecting their feeding.

Sadly i seem to have angered the reefing god somehow and he demanded a sacrifice. Out of nowhere, i had a sudden bacterial bloom in my main tank, during the night, a few days ago. It created an oxygen limitation and the next morning, all my adult shrimps, several snails and one molly were dead. A great addition to all the zoanthus melting that was going on in the last few weeks and really makes you think about dropping out of reefing.

Yeah that god can s.crew himself. Im not done yet, but this means i only have the juvenile shrimps in my nursery tank left, and they will take at least 9 months until adulthood.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Well then. This run is over. In the end 6 larvae have sucessfully transformed. Not bad for neglecting their feeding.

Sadly i seem to have angered the reefing god somehow and he demanded a sacrifice. Out of nowhere, i had a sudden bacterial bloom in my main tank, during the night, a few days ago. It created an oxygen limitation and the next morning, all my adult shrimps, several snails and one molly were dead. A great addition to all the zoanthus melting that was going on in the last few weeks and really makes you think about dropping out of reefing.

Yeah that god can s.crew himself. Im not done yet, but this means i only have the juvenile shrimps in my nursery tank left, and they will take at least 9 months until adulthood.

Sorry for the issues you've run into - I hope you can get things back on track soon. I'm glad to see some of the shrimp survived though.

 

[Tavero]

Sorry for the issues you've run into - I hope you can get things back on track soon. I'm glad to see some of the shrimp survived though.

Just a few days ago I've finally seen one shrimp with eggs again. This means it took them 1.5 years to reach adulthood which feels ridiculously long. So long in fact, I was already theorizing if maybe I didn't have any males in my group and have only bred female shrimp due to some environmental gender trigger.

 

[naterealbig]

Thank you for taking the time to put this together. I just saw this pop up on my feed, and am surprised there isn't more involvement, dialogue/questions from others!

As soon as the eggs turn lighter in color (after ~10 days) they are ready for spawning and i catch the shrimps from my reef tank.

• Are all species of shrimp eggs green?

After just the second one was left in the box the spawning was sucessful today.

• Are shrimp hermaphroditic?
• How do you know the eggs are fertilized?

The larvae are fed with freshly hatched artemia and Vitellus artemia cysts several times each day from now on.

• What is the percentage and frequency of water changes required?
• How long after hatching will it be before I can add the new shrimp to the display (assuming there is not an animal in the tank that will eat them)?

 

[naterealbig]

I have now added the mentioned flake food to my feeding line up. The flakes need to be ground to a coarse powder though.

• On what day can you stop feeding phyto?
• On what day can you stop feeding live artemia?

 

[Tavero]

Are all species of shrimp eggs green?

Yes at least most are. I'm sure there are exceptions though

• Are shrimp hermaphroditic?
• How do you know the eggs are fertilized?

Depends on the species. Palaemon and Thor amboinensis (sexy shrimps) have male/female genders. Sexy shrimps are a special case because all shrimps are born male. As they age most will turn female. In a small group only one male stays male (very frustrating if the male dies). Lysmata are hermaphrodites.

Shrimps will abandon/eat infertile eggs. Without male contact they just recycle them internally though.

• What is the percentage and frequency of water changes required?
• How long after hatching will it be before I can add the new shrimp to the display (assuming there is not an animal in the tank that will eat them)?

No water changes. Phytoplankton takes care of ammonia. I also don't use it as food. Only to increase water quality. I feed live artemia until all shrimps are settled. 3 weeks or so. After they have settled I transfer them into grow out tank.

Around 3 months until transfer is possible into large reef tank. Depends on available food and temperature.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Just a few days ago I've finally seen one shrimp with eggs again. This means it took them 1.5 years to reach adulthood which feels ridiculously long. So long in fact, I was already theorizing if maybe I didn't have any males in my group and have only bred female shrimp due to some environmental gender trigger.

Interesting - thank you for the update!