Invert Breeding

Hardmasterflex · Dec 15, 2016

Has anyone tried or had luck breeding any type of invert? Let me know how it went.

CodyRVA · Dec 15, 2016

Yep, my trochus snails breed like its no bodies business. I started with 6, while many young ones die off or just don't make it, I probably have around 30 at the moment between my sump and display. They've been doing so on and off for about a year.

Kungpaoshizi · Dec 22, 2016

Depends on the inverts.. There's a few breeding forums around. A lot of success with different species, it's just tedious work.

Roboson · Dec 22, 2016

Most inverts are really hard to difficult to bread because:
1) They often have planktonic larval forms they don't do well in a typical tank environment.
2) They have special dietary needs during their infancy (micro-plankton of various types).
3) They get eaten.

As a result, very very few inverts can even be considered when it comes to breeding in normal tanks. Even those that can make it, out of all eggs that hatch, few survive to actual adulthood even if conditions are good.

Some snails do well and may reproduce on their own. Nerites lay lots of eggs, but success is sporadic. Trocus snails are similar. Crustaceans are pretty much a no (it's been done, but it is extremely difficult and requires a special system).

Paul B · Dec 22, 2016

I have has many shrimp, crabs, slugs and urchins spawn, but as far as I know, no one wit a normal tank ever raised them

mort · Dec 26, 2016

I've raised pom pom crabs and sexy shrimp. They are actually very easy when you try it in a kriesel tank. I did get peppermint shrimps reasonably far but lost them all after a few moults. Been meaning to try them again sometime.

Paul B · Dec 26, 2016

Very cool Mort

mort · Dec 29, 2016

I've also bred berghia nudis but that's not really an achievement.

The pom poms was odd as I liked that I raised them but because I couldn't supply them with their little anemones it didn't seem quite so successful. They were funny though as they'd pick up all sorts instead. One used an aiptasia, another carried around part of a bristle worm in one hand and a berghia in the other, and one even chopped a piece of a fungia and carried it around.

Hardmasterflex · Dec 30, 2016

mort said:
I've raised pom pom crabs and sexy shrimp. They are actually very easy when you try it in a kriesel tank. I did get peppermint shrimps reasonably far but lost them all after a few moults. Been meaning to try them again sometime.

Can I know other things you did to achieve this. Cause I'm trying to the the same with my shamefaced crab. Who keeps having babies, but I'm having trouble keeping them alive, with such little information on them.

mort · Dec 30, 2016

Hardmasterflex said:
Can I know other things you did to achieve this. Cause I'm trying to the the same with my shamefaced crab. Who keeps having babies, but I'm having trouble keeping them alive, with such little information on them.

It was a few years ago and the memory is a bit fuzzy but I treated the pom poms in the same way as the sexy shrimp. I had a kriesel tank which I'd made for rearing seahorses, and I added the pom pom to this tank when it had eggs. The key was the gentle circular flow and the fact they could take newly hatched baby brine straight away (I also added phytoplankton and rotifers because I had them but repeated the process with only brine later) like the sexy shrimp. The kriesel also shared water volume with a larger system so water changes weren't so important. I have seen people raise them in brine shrimp hatches though with good success. They molted quickly sometimes twice a week and think they settled within a month.
I'm not sure if the shame faced crabs are as easy because I know different crab species have very small larvae and very long planktonic stages, so initial feeding might be the problem. Luckily with the relatively large larvae of pom poms they are pretty simple.
I had real problems when i tried peppermint shrimp. Everyone said they were pretty straight forward and i had good initial success but in the three times i tried i always lost them at the 10-11th moult stage. Then i lost one of the adults, got disheartened and gave up. I wish you luck wit your shame face.

elfda · Jan 15, 2017

My nassarius, at work, just laid 7 batches of eggs.
There's another unidentified snail that lays a batch of eggs every couple months, and I just had to clear baby snails (unsure of species, but they're very round) from my filter outputs.

So... yes.