Glass anemone shrimp breeding

Levinson · Feb 16, 2025

I ended up rearing the glass anemone shrimp larvae and got some of them to settle.
I wasn't planning on it but they spawned and since I had things prepared for my never-ending experiments rearing sexy shrimp larvae, I just went with it.
I don't know how many I have started with but I got 19 to settle. I have started with way more than 19 of course. I counted them when I move them to the isolation box but have not counted since so I'm not sure if all 19 are still alive. My eyes would pop trying to find them. They are pretty hard to spot or take pictures of because they are small and transparent. I did my best but the pictures look pretty bad.

KrisReef · Feb 16, 2025

Now you are a shrimp rancher! Awesome. :smiling-face-with-sunglasses:

Levinson · Mar 6, 2025

It's been about 30~20 days since the glass anemone shrimps have settled. They have grown but are still small. I can start to see a little of the colours now. The count is not accurate but of the 22 that settled, only about 10 are still alive. The mortality after the settlement is rather high compared to the peppermint shrimp and sexy shrimp I have bred in the past. Normally they don't die easily after they have settled but this wasn't the case.
It is still very hard to take a decent picture of them, mostly because 1. they are small and transparent and 2. the isolation box is not clean and clear with stuff growing on it.

The last picture is of the glass anemone shrimps together with the peppermint shrimps, and the sexy shrimps.
I wanted to get a better shot of them together but it was just not possible.
They were all bred and raised at home by me. I want to be able to breed them all plus a few more crustacean species and become a marine crustacean breeder (and sell them to make some $$$ :D) but I'm not quite there yet.
I am still unable to breed them in mass consistently with ease. Out of the three, the peppermint shrimp seem to be the easiest to raise but I have a problem with them not spawning and don't know why. They do mate and berry eggs all the time but are just not spawning for some reason. I have quite many of the peppermint shrimps in the tank too. The other crustaceans that live in the same tank are spawning just fine. If they do spawn, I think I can raise them relatively easily.
The glass anemone shrimps seem to be the second easiest/hardest but I don't have enough experience with them yet to know enough about them.
The sexy shrimp seem to be the hardest. I have had some great success with them before, raising more than a 100 of them successfully from a single spawn more than once but the success rate is very low and very inconsistent.

Other crustaceans I would like to TRY breeding in the future are emerald crabs, pom pom crabs, and porcelain /anemone crabs. I thought about hermit crabs and harlequin shrimps but supplying the hermits with their shells is just too much hassle and I can't get the starfish for the harlequin shrimps.
First, I want to be able to breed sexy shrimps right, like near perfect.

KrisReef · Mar 6, 2025

I was hoping you would update!
Godspeed.

And plan to get a better camera once you get there! :cool:

Louis Z · May 26, 2025

You can try the skunk cleaner shrimps and the scarlet cleaner shrimps . Those are usually offered at a higher price . More money for further breeding equipment

Levinson · Jul 4, 2025

My second try at breeding glass anemone shrimps.
I had 9 that settled out of far more that didn't make it. Out of the 9, 1 escaped to the display tank and I am keeping 8 in the isolation box. Hopefully the one that escaped doesn't get sucked into the overflow. I'm not too worried about it getting eaten by the others.
It's only been my second attempt, but I think I can get it to settle but it's just that the settlement rate is quite low.
It's not a big sample to work with but the impression I got from my experience was;
The sexy shrimp breeding was more like either a total wipeout or a very low chance of massive success,
The peppermint shrimps were (although I just tried once) just a big success,
so the glass anemone shrimps seem a little different from that.
I plan on trying different things to see if it will increase the survival rate.

Louis Z said:
You can try the skunk cleaner shrimps and the scarlet cleaner shrimps . Those are usually offered at a higher price . More money for further breeding equipment

From what I have read, the cleaner shrimps have a much longer pelagic stage so it is much more difficult to rear their larvae. It would be nice to try someday but there are many others I want to fully succeed first. I haven't even gotten around to mastering a single species yet.

Levinson · Jul 4, 2025

It turns out there were 3 more that I missed out on so it's actually 12 that settled. 11 of which I am currently keeping in the isolation box.

vetteguy53081 · Jul 4, 2025

Levinson said:
I ended up rearing the glass anemone shrimp larvae and got some of them to settle.
I wasn't planning on it but they spawned and since I had things prepared for my never-ending experiments rearing sexy shrimp larvae, I just went with it.
I don't know how many I have started with but I got 19 to settle. I have started with way more than 19 of course. I counted them when I move them to the isolation box but have not counted since so I'm not sure if all 19 are still alive. My eyes would pop trying to find them. They are pretty hard to spot or take pictures of because they are small and transparent. I did my best but the pictures look pretty bad.

Good for you. Apply an algae tab and even rotifiers to keep them fed

Levinson · Jul 29, 2025

Update:
I got 9 more to settle. The survival rate is still very low, and I feel that if I can't improve on it, it might not be worth doing.
Of the 11 that were put in the isolation box before, only 5 survived. I don't know what happened to the rest. Maybe they were eaten by their siblings when they were weak after they'd just molted? Or maybe the condition inside was not so great (nutrient level, hydroids, etc)? I didn't take good care of them.
It might be a good idea to put some structures inside for them to use as a hiding place. I can't think of what I can use, though. I wonder what would make a good hiding place.

Levinson · Jul 31, 2025

I made some hiding places for the shrimps.
For the smaller shrimps, I made a structure by glueing some Siporax bio media together.
For the bigger shrimps, I cut out some small pvc pipe bits and put a rubber band around it to hold them together. Hope this works.

Levinson · Aug 27, 2025

Even with the hiding places installed, I am having issues with losing them. I don't know what is causing this issue. I thought they may be eating each other when they are weak after a molt so the hiding place was suppose to help with that but it wasn't enough. I did find one of them outside the box so they maybe escaping from the box from the top. The residents that live outside the box are just peppermint shrimps, 2 snails and nothing else. The peppermint shrimps didn't bother with the larger glass anemone shrimps but I won't trust them with the smaller ones.
Another issue, which may or may not be related to this, is that the hydroids are growing inside the nursery box. I think this is due to the water flow inside the box. The fine mesh diffuses the flow from outside, and I think this slow flow is what is causing the hydroids to grow inside. Even when I placed them in an area with relatively more flow.
Additionally, the lower part of the box lacks mesh on the sides, allowing detritus to accumulate at the bottom quite easily.
A couple of ideas I had were to get a new nursery box with mesh at the bottom as well and/or get a small pump outside to pump water into the box from the top for more flow.
Though I think it may not be enough to stop whatever is causing the numbers to drop. I need to think of a better nursery zone for them.

Levinson · Aug 29, 2025

I am not sure what I'd do with the nursery zone. Trying to think of a different way, but can't think of them yet.
So far, some of the ideas include the following. I'm not sure if any of this will help because I don't know the cause of the issue (their numbers going down in the isolation box)

- mesh with bigger holes: Might cost more money than I would like to spend if I get new hang-on boxes. Making my own is also quite bothersome.
- mesh at the bottom as well: Again, same as above.
- a small pump pumping into the box from the top: Seems easy to do. I have 2 boxes in the tank at the moment, so I might use a split.
- just dump them into the tank and hope for the best: The issue with this is they'd super difficult to catch later even if they don't get eaten by the peppermint shrimps. Them getting sucked into the overflow due to their small size is also an issue.
- remove the peppermint shrimps then dump them into the tank: Again, same as above.

I thought keeping them once they settle was the easier part. I had no issue keeping sexy shrimps when I bred them. I did lose a whole bunch the newly settled peppermint shrimps when I kept them the same way though.

Levinson · Aug 29, 2025

I got at least 17 to settle, which is not too bad. I think there is still room for improvement.
I think I can manage a reasonably consistent supply of the glass anemone shrimps if I can get the nursery zone issue sorted out. It will be small in numbers, but hopefully that'll improve over time.

Levinson · Sep 1, 2025

I have not yet come up with a solution for the nursery box issue, so I have moved 10 of the settled shrimps to the display tank with grown-up glass anemone shrimps (their parents), sexy shrimps, and emerald crabs.
I don't like the idea because it would be very difficult to catch them even if they do manage to survive and grow.

Levinson · Sep 2, 2025

I know that the female and male glass anemone shrimps form a pair, based on observation (it's quite cute to watch, as they often hang out together). However, I wasn't sure how territorial they are.
From what I've read, they are not very territorial during the early stages when they are still small, but will begin to compete with others of the same sex as they grow.
I think this could be one of the reasons for the nursery issue. Hiding places do help with this, but it would also help if they could be moved to a less crowded area or be isolated when they get bigger.
Maybe it would be better to have many small nursery boxes to keep each of them (or each pair) separated?

Levinson · Oct 6, 2025

I've been busy breeding sexy shrimps, and I still haven't got around to solving the glass anemone shrimp grow-out space issue. I think I will try to isolate each of them first. This won't solve the hydroid inside the confinement issue (I actually think it will make it worse), but assuming they are fighting/killing each other, hopefully this will keep more of them alive. Or the hydroid sting in a small confinement might stress or kill them.
The hard part is that I will need many small confinements for each of them. I haven't thought of how I will be able to do this yet. Also, I'm not sure if I have enough space to do this with so many shrimps (if I get more to settle next time, that is.

Louis Z · Oct 6, 2025

I can’t tell you from experience in breeding . But I have been trying to keep gulf shrimp . A totally different species . They seem to be sensitive to nitrates . Maybe yours more sensitive than my species of adult shrimp . A possible alternative is cheatomorpha algae . Cheato might accomplish two things . It would be a nitrate sponge and a substrate for shrimp to perch on (Loosely spread apart cheato strands). As for hydroids , cheatomorpha can be grown/ dipped in freshwater to possibly kill hydroids . cheato may be an alternative than using mesh screen. As in small freshwater fish fry and Amano shrimp culture , the infusoria that grows on algae is a food source . As for hydroids , possibly peroxide may kill them before adding shrimp ( I have not tried yet ) . Or do a sterile tank /pipe clean with H2O2 before putting them in . I am thinking of an airdriven in-tank sponge filter seeded with DrTims To reduce any ammonia buildup . How long of a planktonic phase do your shrimps have ? If they have pelagic planktonic phase then. All of your pipes and tubes must be removed until they begin to settle out I bring these solutions up as possibilities not as proven methods . My current project is in infancy . I am working on salt marsh grass shrimp found on the Texas coast . I have just gone down to the coast and collected my stock .

Louis Z · Oct 6, 2025

Sorry I am reading all of your posts from recent to past . So I am answering many of the questions I have posed . Sorry

Levinson · Oct 23, 2025

I made the hang on shrimp hotel. There had been some failed attempts and it's not perfect but I finally got around to it. It would have been nice if there had been more space vertically but this is all I could manage.
I have 9 glass anemone in there in total at the moment. 7 of them get their own room, and a female, male pair share a room (this is also to test if I can pair them up like this). I have split some of the compartments into 2 with a piece of a sponge so I can house more. Still not enough to house the shrimps if I breed them again in the future.
They seem to be doing fine so far.