How to breed Peppermint Shrimp

[Knight_Solaire01]

Hello everyone. I wasn't sure if this belonged in the invert forums or breeding, so I made this exact post in both. I have male and female peppermint shrimp who have been getting along well with their bottom-of-the-tank mates such as the cleaner shrimp, hermits, snails, hermit crab(an impulse buy), and brittle star. They along with the peppermint shrimp molt every two weeks which makes me think that I am doing something right by them if they are comfortable enough to do this often. To my amazement, they had hundreds of babies one night. I tried catching some in the breeding net that I have saved for when I get ponies(because of course if I have a male and female I am preparing for this too), but couldn't catch any. I noticed my female lurking far away from her friend under a rock she normally doesn't go near. I decided to go ahead and net her into the breeding net and added some live rock to help her feel at home until sunset. My question is, do they lay eggs and then the male fertilizes them or does she carry the eggs until it is time for them to hatch under her tail? Should I remove her and just try to net the babies for better effect? I view this as a chance to practice feeding live brine shrimp for the day when I have a mated pair of ponies, and I can always give the fully grown babies to my LFS.

 

[LordJoshaeus]

I am no expert, but if I am not mistaken most larval crustaceans are quite fragile and challenging to rear...I was under the impression that catching one with a cup (where the larvae would stay submerged) would be safer than trying to net one. I don't recall seeing anything on breeding peppermint shrimp, but I have seen a few articles and forum journals on raising sexy shrimp...those may be worth a look.

 

[Knight_Solaire01]

Iwi

I am no expert, but if I am not mistaken most larval crustaceans are quite fragile and challenging to rear...I was under the impression that catching one with a cup (where the larvae would stay submerged) would be safer than trying to net one. I don't recall seeing anything on breeding peppermint shrimp, but I have seen a few articles and forum journals on raising sexy shrimp...those may be worth a look.

I will use a glass jar that I normally use for adding calcium and such to catch them up. If netting them out kills them than I won't do that.

 

[AcroNem]

It has been done, but is quite difficult. More like extremely difficult. They have a larval stage before settlement (can't recall how long, either 30 or 60 days, I thought it was 60 but I could be wrong) and they end up dying right before settlement in most cases, incredibly frustrating. They need constant live foods in suspension to feed and perfect water quality. It's quite the feat to get them to settle out.
To answer the other question, the eggs are already fertilized, she is holding them until hatch when she releases them.

 

[35ppt]

Redacted

 

[ThRoewer]

They have been bred and I don't think it is overly complicated, just not easy and simple enough for commercial breeding.

With shrimp, you fare best by using a planktonkreisel that keeps them and their food in suspension. Here a video I found that shows one in action:



BTW, like all Lysmata shrimp, they start as males, then are hermaphrodites for a couple of years, and finally are just females for the rest of their lives.

 

[Knight_Solaire01]

Th

They have been bred and I don't think it is overly complicated, just not easy and simple enough for commercial breeding.

With shrimp, you fare best by using a planktonkreisel that keeps them and their food in suspension. Here a video I found that shows one in action:



BTW, like all Lysmata shrimp, they start as males, then are hermaphrodites for a couple of years, and finally are just females for the rest of their lives.

That is also a great idea for when I get sea horses and if they hav babies. Thank you!

 

[35ppt]

Redacted

 

[Knight_Solaire01]

Another write up on peppermints, this bucket method seems the easiest.

Breeding Peppermint Shrimp

Seawitch submitted a new Article: Breeding Peppermint Shrimp Peppermint shrimp. Photo is from the World Wide Corals website. ©2019, All Rights Reserved. Note from the Editor: The following breeding information was kindly furnished to us by @Sallstrom, who is a professional marine biologist...

www.reef2reef.com

That is awesome I would love to try this DIY method. I just need to get another tank and the proper stuff. I already have the rest. Thank you!

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Another write up on peppermints, this bucket method seems the easiest.

Breeding Peppermint Shrimp

Seawitch submitted a new Article: Breeding Peppermint Shrimp Peppermint shrimp. Photo is from the World Wide Corals website. ©2019, All Rights Reserved. Note from the Editor: The following breeding information was kindly furnished to us by @Sallstrom, who is a professional marine biologist...

www.reef2reef.com

This is by far the easiest marine larva tank I have ever seen. Thanks for bringing this article out...looks FAR easier to build than a Kreisel.

 

[ThRoewer]

This is by far the easiest marine larva tank I have ever seen. Thanks for bringing this article out...looks FAR easier to build than a Kreisel.

I used octagonal tanks with a rotational flow like that and they work a lot better than square tanks, but they are not as effective in keeping larvae and food in suspension as a kreisel.

 

[Knight_Solaire01]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I will begin making this breeding tank. Any practice I can get now for the ponies that I want in the future will be much appreciated. And if I am successful with this, I can always trade the babies for store credit at my LFS.

 

[ThRoewer]

You should also be able to turn a bucket into a kreisel in a similar setup.
I plan on experimenting with cheaper, improvised setups before putting money into a more "professional" built.
The thing is also that different species may do better in one or the other. You have to try to find out...

 

[Ben Pedersen]

A couple years back I had a cleaner shrimp that instead of dispersing eggs from her tail dispersed little tiny cleaner shrimp. They were not larval at all. They were fully formed and running around the glass like adult shrimp but tiny. Is that normal?

 

[OlderManSea]

Hello everyone. I wasn't sure if this belonged in the invert forums or breeding, so I made this exact post in both. I have male and female peppermint shrimp who have been getting along well with their bottom-of-the-tank mates such as the cleaner shrimp, hermits, snails, hermit crab(an impulse buy), and brittle star. They along with the peppermint shrimp molt every two weeks which makes me think that I am doing something right by them if they are comfortable enough to do this often. To my amazement, they had hundreds of babies one night. I tried catching some in the breeding net that I have saved for when I get ponies(because of course if I have a male and female I am preparing for this too), but couldn't catch any. I noticed my female lurking far away from her friend under a rock she normally doesn't go near. I decided to go ahead and net her into the breeding net and added some live rock to help her feel at home until sunset. My question is, do they lay eggs and then the male fertilizes them or does she carry the eggs until it is time for them to hatch under her tail? Should I remove her and just try to net the babies for better effect? I view this as a chance to practice feeding live brine shrimp for the day when I have a mated pair of ponies, and I can always give the fully grown babies to my LFS.

Several of the replies here are very good. There is a book with a wacky title, but I purchased it some years ago and was successful. It is called How to Raise and Train Your Peppermint Shrimp by April Kirkendoll. I just looked at Amazon and it is still available. My account says I bought my copy in 2012. With that and the updated information in the replies in this thread you should be able to do it.

​

The Amazon Book Review

 

[Kan9]

A couple years back I had a cleaner shrimp that instead of dispersing eggs from her tail dispersed little tiny cleaner shrimp. They were not larval at all. They were fully formed and running around the glass like adult shrimp but tiny. Is that normal?

Thats very cool! Do you happen to have a picture of this shrimp? Wonder what type of cleaner shrimp it was?

 

[mtfish]

A couple years back I had a cleaner shrimp that instead of dispersing eggs from her tail dispersed little tiny cleaner shrimp. They were not larval at all. They were fully formed and running around the glass like adult shrimp but tiny. Is that normal?

Yes. When the female shrimp molts it sends out pheromones to attract a male and the eggs get fertilized. Female then carries the eggs until the first larval stage (your miniature shrimp). Usually releasing soon after lights out. I don't have peppermint shrimp, but do have pistol shrimp. Lots of larvae over the years, but never tried to raise them.

 

[Pugsct]

Hello everyone. I wasn't sure if this belonged in the invert forums or breeding, so I made this exact post in both. I have male and female peppermint shrimp who have been getting along well with their bottom-of-the-tank mates such as the cleaner shrimp, hermits, snails, hermit crab(an impulse buy), and brittle star. They along with the peppermint shrimp molt every two weeks which makes me think that I am doing something right by them if they are comfortable enough to do this often. To my amazement, they had hundreds of babies one night. I tried catching some in the breeding net that I have saved for when I get ponies(because of course if I have a male and female I am preparing for this too), but couldn't catch any. I noticed my female lurking far away from her friend under a rock she normally doesn't go near. I decided to go ahead and net her into the breeding net and added some live rock to help her feel at home until sunset. My question is, do they lay eggs and then the male fertilizes them or does she carry the eggs until it is time for them to hatch under her tail? Should I remove her and just try to net the babies for better effect? I view this as a chance to practice feeding live brine shrimp for the day when I have a mated pair of ponies, and I can always give the fully grown babies to my LFS.

I had peppermint shrimp I never tried to breed Them but they had babies I would wake up and see the swarm in my tank and the fish going crazy over them

 

[ThRoewer]

A couple years back I had a cleaner shrimp that instead of dispersing eggs from her tail dispersed little tiny cleaner shrimp. They were not larval at all. They were fully formed and running around the glass like adult shrimp but tiny. Is that normal?

No, that's not really normal.
Normally they carry the eggs until they hatch and release the larvae. Those then take weeks, if not months, to develop into the final shrimp.

What happened to your little shrimp? Any pictures of them?

 

[Bob Escher]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I will begin making this breeding tank. Any practice I can get now for the ponies that I want in the future will be much appreciated. And if I am successful with this, I can always trade the babies for store credit at my LFS.

Actually if you let them grow large enough you could sell them yourself
i would buy