Sexy Shrimp Breeding

PrevieAriz · Mar 3, 2020

I am interested in breeding sexy shrimp. I have been reading everything I can find and am now looking for real-world experience/ advise. I would only have the sexy shrimp, live rock, and some soft coral for them. No other fish or livestock.

1) what is the smallest tank size I can get away with? (I have a 75 and 13 gallon currently, my husband has 6 freshwater tanks--3 of his are for cherry shrimp breeding which is why I got the idea to breed sexy shrimp)
2) what do I absolutely need so far as equipment? (skimmer, filter, lights, heart, etc)
3) what is the best substrate?
4) anything else you can think of!

I have read it is difficult but I am willing to give it a try! Thank you all in advance for your help!

Ron Reefman · Mar 4, 2020

Have you read here or elsewhere that breeding sexy shrimp in captivity is even possible?

If so, I'd suggest chasing down the authors of those books, posts or scientific papers and try asking them questions.

I know many fish and other livestock are breed in small tanks. I don't think your 13g tank is out of the question. I'll soon be breeding RFAs in a 16g tank.

Look into the natural environment that sexy shrimp live in out in the wild. Try to duplicate that as a starting point?

Good luck.

Gareth elliott · Mar 4, 2020

Sexy Shrimp Breeding -- An Illustrated Guide - The Meaning of Life is Multiple Choice

Looks like they hatch larger than platonic size so, large hurdle of breeding most inverts is avoided.

andrewkw · Mar 4, 2020

I had planned on giving it a try but I never got around to it. I've kept them several times but my latest group has dropped down to 1 or 2 and they are very difficult to catch in a 10g tank. When I had a larger group I'd sometimes see one with eggs.

1) what is the smallest tank size I can get away with? (I have a 75 and 13 gallon currently, my husband has 6 freshwater tanks--3 of his are for cherry shrimp breeding which is why I got the idea to breed sexy shrimp)

I would say a 5 gallon tank is ideal. You could go smaller but you want decent quality. Any larger and they can be difficult to catch. I would NOT set it up as a reef. If I just left my tank bare I probably would have had babies, but once I got the softies in, had everything fill in, I was no longer interested in tearing down the aquascape to catch a female with eggs. I'm not sure if you've never seen them in person but they are roughly the size of PE mysis. (females a little larger)

2) what do I absolutely need so far as equipment? (skimmer, filter, lights, heart, etc)
water and a heater. They are tiny specs, if you feed them a small amount of food they are only going to create a small amount of waste. A piece of live rock or perhaps a ceramic block would be fine for filtration.

3) what is the best substrate?
no substrate
4) anything else you can think of!

They can and will jump so a cover is a good idea. They also will fight. I'm not sure what the ideal size group is. My large group only lasted 2 years - I have a few stragglers still but they either fought, jumped, or some were just older when I got them. When I had smaller groups of 3-5 they seemed to live longer but I don't have records of how long I actually had those ones. I'm pretty sure more then 2 years though.