Peppermint Shrimp Carrying Eggs

MuggyReef · Sep 15, 2022

So after having to return one of the three shrimp due to its tendency on to destroy my Duncan I discovered one of the remaining two is carrying eggs! I’ve bred cherry shrimp, albeit not on purpose, so I want to try to actually rear these larvae. I’ve done a lot of reading on it last night and learned a lot. I’m starting with a 1/2 gallon “betta viewer” with a small air pump for the first rearing tank. Learned they needs lots and lots of BBS. Thought about the instant BBS but didn’t see anything on using them for peppermint shrimp and am worried they might be too big or not “live”(aka moving) enough for the fry to recognize them as food. So I purchased everything I need to make a King of DIY style BBS hatchery, I’m going with 4 hatching chambers so I can provide freshly hatched BBS multiple times a day. I read they might need a kreisel tank but then also saw just a regular tank with the sides blacked out also works so I’m going that route first, if at first I don’t succeed try try try multiple times and then try another method. Will post updates with what’s going on, right now I think I have a few days till the shrimp releases eggs/larvae but it should be easy to snatch her up and place her in the rearing tank as she is not shy and will come right out of hiding for food. Wish me luck!

can’t really see the eggs in the pictures unfortunately.

vetteguy53081 · Sep 15, 2022

MuggyReef said:
So after having to return one of the three shrimp due to its tendency on to destroy my Duncan I discovered one of the remaining two is carrying eggs! I’ve bred cherry shrimp, albeit not on purpose, so I want to try to actually rear these larvae. I’ve done a lot of reading on it last night and learned a lot. I’m starting with a 1/2 gallon “betta viewer” with a small air pump for the first rearing tank. Learned they needs lots and lots of BBS. Thought about the instant BBS but didn’t see anything on using them for peppermint shrimp and am worried they might be too big or not “live”(aka moving) enough for the fry to recognize them as food. So I purchased everything I need to make a King of DIY style BBS hatchery, I’m going with 4 hatching chambers so I can provide freshly hatched BBS multiple times a day. I read they might need a kreisel tank but then also saw just a regular tank with the sides blacked out also works so I’m going that route first, if at first I don’t succeed try try try multiple times and then try another method. Will post updates with what’s going on, right now I think I have a few days till the shrimp releases eggs/larvae but it should be easy to snatch her up and place her in the rearing tank as she is not shy and will come right out of hiding for food. Wish me luck!

can’t really see the eggs in the pictures unfortunately.

They are and mother will guard them but babies may or may not make it

MuggyReef · Sep 15, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
They are and mother will guard them but babies may or may not make it

Yeah I’ve read it’s difficult with low survival rate of larvae but saw BBS had the highest success rate of all foods. Might need to grab some phytoplankton and hope it arrives in time as I’ve read they eat that as well as the BS eating it. Still very new to saltwater. My last tank I had as a kid.

MuggyReef · Sep 19, 2022

We’ll I’ve got baby shrimp!

it’s hard to see them among the brine shrimp I added yesterday. I’ve got two brine shrimp hatcheries going right now, the first was added yesterday in case the shrimp hatched last night which they did! Took about 20 minutes to catch the mama.