Cleaner shrimp spawn

[dzolot]

I apologize for the horrible video and picture quality, but i think my cleaner shrimp spawned tonight!!?? These are pictures of the pregnant mamma moments before. Video is of the spawn, but not sure it’s loaded correctly

anyway, my question is - how can i harvest some of these babies so that they live And grow??!!

i immediately turned off my skimmer. I have a 150G DT with a sump and a refugium and an ats.

any thoughts or suggestions On how to keep some of these babies alive would be greatly appreciated!! Also any information Or general knowledge on what i just witnesses and how cleaner shrimp reproduce would be great!

thank you!

 

[KatesReef13]

I had a Cleaner Shrimp that did this in my first tank. I'm not an expert, but I wanted to save them too, however based on my research back then, you need to have a setup for them otherwise they probably won't survive.

Things could be different these days though, so maybe someone else will be able to help more. Sorry, wish I had some real advice :/

Good luck!

 

[Uncle99]

Every cleaner is both a male and female thus you either bought it with eggs or you have two.
Assuming you have two, then each 14-21 days, he/she will flick her tail after lights go out and release those eggs.
Each little cleaner has an yokesack that’s good for about 12 hours, then, they will need to be fed.

So, there are a number of hurdles you must get beyond.

1. When they spawn in tank, mom, dad and anyone else will eat them. Powrheads, filters will kill them?
So unless your breeding in a tank which separates the parents from children with a 3mm screen,using a light t9 attract the fry through the screen for safety, most will be lost. Will good timing of the spawn event (they are quite timely) and a small flashlight, you can attract them on using airline tubing, suck them out into a fry tank.

2.For feeding, you MUST use LIVE rotifers for at least 7 days, then transitioning to newly hatched brine for 14=days, then to pulverized flake.

3. Growth rate is extremely slow, about 180 days to get to 1/2”

The procedure is virtually identical to breeding clowns.

Good fun if you into that type of stuff.

First pic is the breeding tank, second is the spawn after removing the parents.

 

[dzolot]

Wow, that’s awesome!! How many adults do you typically get per spawn? And what do you do with all of them??!! Wonder how many i can keep in my 150 (yes, i have two now)??

do you think there ANY chance of a baby surviving in my setup? I turned off my skimmer and netted a few that I put my sump.

what type of filtration would i need in the breeder tank? Is an air stone, heater and some live rock enough? Alternatively, i wonder if i can set something up in my sump? Like a netted breeder sack of some sort??

thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!!

Every cleaner is both a male and female thus you either bought it with eggs or you have two.
Assuming you have two, then each 14-21 days, he/she will flick her tail after lights go out and release those eggs.
Each little cleaner has an yokesack that’s good for about 12 hours, then, they will need to be fed.

So, there are a number of hurdles you must get beyond.

1. When they spawn in tank, mom, dad and anyone else will eat them. Powrheads, filters will kill them?
So unless your breeding in a tank which separates the parents from children with a 3mm screen,using a light t9 attract the fry through the screen for safety, most will be lost. Will good timing of the spawn event (they are quite timely) and a small flashlight, you can attract them on using airline tubing, suck them out into a fry tank.

2.For feeding, you MUST use LIVE rotifers for at least 7 days, then transitioning to newly hatched brine for 14=days, then to pulverized flake.

3. Growth rate is extremely slow, about 180 days to get to 1/2”

The procedure is virtually identical to breeding clowns.

Good fun if you into that type of stuff.

First pic is the breeding tank, second is the spawn after removing the parents.

 

[Uncle99]

So your looking at a spawn around 200 ish.
You lose about 50 in the first few days. I don’t know why.
You lose another 30 when metamorphosis occurs, this varies somewhat say day 14-30.
Whatever is left after metamorphosis are usually strong and go all the way.
So a spawn, at least for me, yields about 100, they are LFS ready at 180 days, each I get $5.00, they sell for $15.00. I never have any left, one LFS takes them all and they split between their retail shops.
The process is very similar for clowns, peps, and fire shrimps, however fires like a temp more like 75 degrees.

I think the chances of any surviving a DT is quite remote.

I use 2 glass 10 gallon tanks, both like you said, air stone only, heater, desk lamp for light, piece of LR. I paint all sides flat black, except the front. I leave a one inch square unpainted in the bottom right corner. This is where I shine a small flashlight to attract them.
When the spawn occurs, I move the parents to the second glass tank to repeat process.

After metamorphosis, these are big enough, say 3mm to transfer to a 20g for the long grow out period.This tank same as the breeding tank, just bigger. Shrimps grow real slow (about 180 days) in comparison to say clown fish which grow say three times faster.

The fry are super delicate until metamorphosis occurs, any handling at all is not good.

Transfer is done by shining a light, they will group together, I try to get them in a plastic cup to transfer.

Netting would certainly damage them.

To be honest it’s a lot of work, but can be quite fun, not really a money maker for me, I think I spend more on stuff than the value of them retail, but ya learn a ton,

If your going to move forward, I suggest the following.

-It can’t be done in a DT, you need to do this separate from that.
-you need to be able to make your own phytoplankton to feed your rotifers.
-you need to have this and rotifers on hand and always available for at least 7 days.
-you need to find a starting culture of both phyto and rotifer.
-you need to gut load your rotifers with Selcon and Phyto....ie...place some rotifers in a jar with a few drops of selcon and phyto, let them sit in the mix for 4 hours, then, constant drip into your fry tank so your fry can learn how to hunt, and that the food is high in nutrients.
-when you transfer from rotifer to newly hatched brine (gut loadthem same way) about day 7, overlap foods for a couple of days, then you can discontinue the rotifers.

 

[dzolot]

So your looking at a spawn around 200 ish.
You lose about 50 in the first few days. I don’t know why.
You lose another 30 when metamorphosis occurs, this varies somewhat say day 14-30.
Whatever is left after metamorphosis are usually strong and go all the way.
So a spawn, at least for me, yields about 100, they are LFS ready at 180 days, each I get $5.00, they sell for $15.00. I never have any left, one LFS takes them all and they split between their retail shops.
The process is very similar for clowns, peps, and fire shrimps, however fires like a temp more like 75 degrees.

I think the chances of any surviving a DT is quite remote.

I use 2 glass 10 gallon tanks, both like you said, air stone only, heater, desk lamp for light, piece of LR. I paint all sides flat black, except the front. I leave a one inch square unpainted in the bottom right corner. This is where I shine a small flashlight to attract them.
When the spawn occurs, I move the parents to the second glass tank to repeat process.

After metamorphosis, these are big enough, say 3mm to transfer to a 20g for the long grow out period.This tank same as the breeding tank, just bigger. Shrimps grow real slow (about 180 days) in comparison to say clown fish which grow say three times faster.

The fry are super delicate until metamorphosis occurs, any handling at all is not good.

Transfer is done by shining a light, they will group together, I try to get them in a plastic cup to transfer.

Netting would certainly damage them.

To be honest it’s a lot of work, but can be quite fun, not really a money maker for me, I think I spend more on stuff than the value of them retail, but ya learn a ton,

If your going to move forward, I suggest the following.

-It can’t be done in a DT, you need to do this separate from that.
-you need to be able to make your own phytoplankton to feed your rotifers.
-you need to have this and rotifers on hand and always available for at least 7 days.
-you need to find a starting culture of both phyto and rotifer.
-you need to gut load your rotifers with Selcon and Phyto....ie...place some rotifers in a jar with a few drops of selcon and phyto, let them sit in the mix for 4 hours, then, constant drip into your fry tank so your fry can learn how to hunt, and that the food is high in nutrients.
-when you transfer from rotifer to newly hatched brine (gut loadthem same way) about day 7, overlap foods for a couple of days, then you can discontinue the rotifers.

uncle 99, many thanks for your write up. Breeding shrimp sound like a lot of fun and would Be a really new challenge for me to take on!! Biggest issue for me would be growing phyto at home. In the meantime, i guess my corals and fish will be getting a special treat to eat every 14 days or so!!