Coral shrimp larvae

[will?]

Hey guys, my Coral shrimp had eggs suddenly. they seemed dormant, so I thought nothing of them, but just the other day, they hatched. I set up a spare tank and put them in, with a sponge filter and some other recommended equipment. I have no live foods other than vinegar eels, as the frozen shrimp I feed my fish are far to big, (roughly 1-2cm each). I was wondering if anyone knew if you could feed them vinegar eels? The shrimp are only a day old. Thanks

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I have no live foods other than vinegar eels, as the frozen shrimp I feed my fish are far to big, (roughly 1-2cm each). I was wondering if anyone knew if you could feed them vinegar eels?

I doubt the vinegar eels will work to feed them, but if you don't have other live foods, then it's worth a shot. Most larvae need live food, as the movement of the food entices them to eat it.

The thread below may help you with figuring out how to rear the larvae in the future if you can get some live foods to offer:

Breeding Palaemon Elegans (Mediterrane Rock Pool Shrimp) Guide

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...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[will?]

Thanks so much mate, I'll give it a look. I did try the vinegar eels in a small amount, but couldn't really see anything, as the larvae and the shrimp are so small. I just thought, as the adult shrimp are eating my bristle worms, the little guys might eat the eels. I have also made a liquid feed from Nori (natural and unsalted) and they seem to like it, its just hard to tell if they really interact, because they're so small.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I just thought, as the adult shrimp are eating my bristle worms, the little guys might eat the eels. I have also made a liquid feed from Nori (natural and unsalted) and they seem to like it, its just hard to tell if they really interact, because they're so small.

Yeah, typically marine larvae need tiny little live critters to feed on like rotifers, freshly hatched brine shrimp, copepods, etc. - some larvae need critters that move in the right way to get them to eat too.

They typically don't feed directly on algae like nori as larvae, but they feed on the critters that eat algae/phytoplankton. They also may need critters with specific nutritional makeups to eat to get the right nutrients.

Yeah, without a microscope it can be really hard to tell if the larvae are eating.

 

[will?]

Good to know, also, is it too hard to grow and breed your own brine shrimp instead of buying new eggs constantly, I'd love to do that so I could have my own replenishing source of brine shrimp because everything I have eats them, I'm breeding Bettas too and would love to have some more live food on offer. I've also got these tiny octopus like things with my Coral shrimp larvae, any idea what they are by any chance?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Good to know, also, is it too hard to grow and breed your own brine shrimp instead of buying new eggs constantly, I'd love to do that so I could have my own replenishing source of brine shrimp because everything I have eats them, I'm breeding Bettas too and would love to have some more live food on offer. I've also got these tiny octopus like things with my Coral shrimp larvae, any idea what they are by any chance?

You can definitely breed your own brine shrimp (and rotifers, copepods, etc.) - you just need a little culture container for them and some phytoplankton (which you can also culture if you want) to feed them.

A lot of people like to use brine shrimp hatcheries; you can find specific culture instructions online at places like Brine Shrimp Direct easily enough if you want an intensive rearing method.

For the octopus like things, my first guess would be medusa stage hydroids, but I'd need pics to say for sure.

 

[will?]

Here's some pics, it seems to be getting bigger (the octopus thing)

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Here's some pics, it seems to be getting bigger (the octopus thing)

Yeah, those are Cladonema sp. hydroids in their medusa stage.

 

[will?]

Yeah, those are Cladonema sp. hydroids in their medusa stage.

Thank you! Should I leave them in and grow them, or remove them?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Thank you! Should I leave them in and grow them, or remove them?

Most people would recommend removal - they are a kind of hydroid, and many hydroids can sting things in tanks.

That said, they could be pretty cool in a separate little setup of their own.

 

[will?]

Most people would recommend removal - they are a kind of hydroid, and many hydroids can sting things in tanks.

That said, they could be pretty cool in a separate little setup of their own.

Cool, I'll give it a go. what do you think they would grow into? And will I need to feed them? They just seem self sufficient at the moment.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Cool, I'll give it a go. what do you think they would grow into? And will I need to feed them? They just seem self sufficient at the moment.

What you're seeing (the medusae) is the adult stage - one of two for a lot of hydroids, including Cladonema species.

These should eventually spawn, and the fertilized eggs will turn into planula larvae which will settle on the substrate and turn into a colony of hydroid polyps (like little, twiggy corals with a sting); once those reach maturity, you'll see them starting to form ephyrae (baby medusa stage hydroids), which will break off from the colony and start swimming around; these ephyrae grow into the medusae, eventually spawn, and start the life cycle again.

For feeding, I don't believe these are photosynthetic, so they'll need zooplankton - artemia nauplii (baby brine shrimp), copepods, rotifers, etc. are all some examples - and/or a tiny food that they can grab out of the water column.

I haven't looked into the dietary requirements of these specifically, so I don't know what size of feed they would need, but I would assume something small (TDO Chroma Boost comes in a good range of sizes, and I imagine they'd have some that would work) - if you're not feeding live feed, then you will likely want to siphon the excess food out or add a CUC that can live with the hydroids to keep the water quality in check (I'd imagine bristleworms would work, but I don't know for sure).

 

[will?]

Hey mate, thanks a ton for the support, just one last question. My coral shrimp has once again spawned and I'm preparing the tank for the larvae, but I've found a crazy amount of these tiny white critters all over the glass. I assume they are copepods of some sort, but was wondering if I should keep them in. Maybe a passive source of food for the CSL?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Hey mate, thanks a ton for the support, just one last question. My coral shrimp has once again spawned and I'm preparing the tank for the larvae, but I've found a crazy amount of these tiny white critters all over the glass. I assume they are copepods of some sort, but was wondering if I should keep them in. Maybe a passive source of food for the CSL?

Any pics of them?

If they're smaller than the larvae, then they may work for a food source (though they would need to move in the right way to entice the shrimp to eat them). I know with some species, if there's too much food in the tank for them, it can actually decrease the probability of them eating the food - I don't know if that applies to coral shrimp though. Either way, I'd try to make sure there isn't an excessively large number in the tank (and your main tank would likely appreciate some extra pods to eat).

Personally, as long as they're pods and not too large, I'd probably pull some out, leave some in, and just feed the batch like normal even with them in.

 

[will?]

Cool, thank you. I'll send some photos when I get home this arvo

 

[will?]

Good news? My coral shrimp has hatched a new lot of eggs and I've established a brine shrimp hatchery! I think it should go ok, but the little bugger disappeared and then hatched them 2 weeks b4 I go away. Can I set up a drip like a Betta drip, to put baby brine shrimp into the water? I have bought a ziss ez sieve which supposedly releases the babies into the water slowly and contains the eggs. If I just put eggs in the water, would the coral shrimp larvae be ok with the shell, or could I put a whole lot of BBS in before I leave? I've heard BBS take 6-8 weeks to grow, so would they stay small enough for just 2 weeks to feed the coral shrimp larvae while I'm away? I dont want to put too much pressure on my family...

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Can I set up a drip like a Betta drip, to put baby brine shrimp into the water?

You could possibly do a betta drip or a geosapper feeder setup to drop the baby brine in, but I can't imagine it would be terribly effective (though I'm definitely open to being proven wrong).

If I just put eggs in the water, would the coral shrimp larvae be ok with the shell,

It might harm a few of the larvae, but many would be fine with the shell.

or could I put a whole lot of BBS in before I leave?

If you could decapsulate a bunch of eggs and setup an autofeeder to drop a roughly set number of decapsulated eggs into the tank daily, that would probably be your best bet, but it's definitely a risk.

I've heard BBS take 6-8 weeks to grow, so would they stay small enough for just 2 weeks to feed the coral shrimp larvae while I'm away?

Most likely not, no; plus, the nutrition of hatched brine shrimp drops like a rock after the first ~24 hours.

Again, my suggestion would be to decapsulate a bunch of eggs and either use an autofeeder or store the decapsulated eggs in the fridge and have your family add a certain amount each day.
For how to do those, see the links below:

FA176/FA176: Teach Aquaculture Curriculum: Dancing with Brine Shrimp

Brine shrimp live in and are harvested primarily from natural salt lakes and solar salt operations around the world. Two natural sources of brine shrimp in the United States are the Great Salt Lake in Utah and San Francisco Bay in California. Adult brine shrimp are also called "sea monkeys" and...

edis.ifas.ufl.edu

FA18/FA023: Decapsulating Brine Shrimp Eggs

University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension outreach is a partnership between state, federal, and county governments to provide scientific knowledge and expertise to the public. The University of Florida (UF), together with Florida A&M University (FAMU)...

edis.ifas.ufl.edu