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The Complete Fairy Shrimp Guide (hopefully, help me fill in the blanks!)

111K views 125 replies 31 participants last post by  bubblerings 
#1 · (Edited)
Thinking about grabbing a few thousand eggs and hatching them as either live food and/or just as a nano/pico fairy shrimp tank.

Anyone have experience with this?:

- What kind of tanks / bowls do you use?
- What substrate/flora/fauna setup would maximize their life-cycle (if any needed)?
- What do you feed them?

Lastly, anyone keep these as pets? Want to see some pics! :D


Findings
--------------------------------------------------
Will update more feedback / info as I find them here. Only good info I can find are from 2 shrimp farms :/ Not sure if this is very accurate:

Wild Habitat:
Fairy shrimp have short life cycles and live in standing temporary water, dry lakes and vernal pools to name some. Many in the wild will also hatch and breed in small puddles of muddy rain water.

Aquarium Habitat:
At home, keepers claim that Fairy Shrimp exhibit brighter coloration when kept under direct light. Use distilled or spring water, and top off regularly. A filter and flow is not required, as Fairy Shrimps live in standing puddles of water in their natural habitats. In fact, strong filters should be reduced and covered with a sponge to prevent sucking away the baby shrimp. Salinity and specific conditions vary based on the species of the shrimp.

Feeding:
In the wild, fairy shrimps are filter feeders. They strain tiny particles (bacteria, algae, spores) out of the water. In captivity, they can live on a diet of “yeast soup”: dissolve 1 packet of dried yeast (bakers or brewers), 1 teaspoon of sugar, and a big pinch of crushed fish food flakes in 1/3 cup of hot spring water. Mix well and let it sit an hour. Store your “soup” in the refrigerator or another cool place. To feed your shrimp, stir or shake the mixture thoroughly. (It settles out quickly.) Use an eyedropper or pipette to drip a few drops of the soup into the water. Give the right amount of food -- the water should be slightly hazy (still see-through), but not cloudy. If it becomes cloudy, stop feeding for a day or two until it clears up.

Genus/Family:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streptocephalus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branchinecta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thamnocephalidae

Species:

Redtail Fairy Shrimp (Streptocephalus _):

Lifespan: 8 weeks
Full Size: up to 0.5"
Temperature: 50-100F, widest range of survival temperature

Thai Fairy Shrimp (Branchinella thailandensis):

Lifespan: 8 weeks
Full Size: up to 1"-1.37"
Temperature: 50-65F optimal to hatch

Dry Lake Fairy Shrimp (Streptocephalus _)

Lifespan: 3-5 weeks average, up to 9 weeks
Full Size: up to 0.9"
Temperature: can survive up to 93F

Winter Fairy Shrimp (Branchinecta _)

Lifespan: 10 weeks
Full Size: up to 0.8"
Temperature: 40F - 72F (optimal 60-68); can even hatch in icy waters < 40F!

Mammoth Winter Fairy Shrimp (Branchinecta _)

Lifespan: 12 weeks
Full Size: up to 1.2"
Temperature: 40F - 72F (optimal 60-68); can even hatch in icy waters < 40F!

Beavertail Fairy Shrimp

Lifespan: 14 weeks average
Full Size: up to 2"
Temperature:

Giant Fairy Shrimp (Branchinecta gigas):

Lifespan:
Full Size: up to 3.4"
Temperature: 45-60F optimal to hatch


Videos:

2-3" red and green found in a well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftBNnrteoP8
2" beavertails captured from a puddle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunAaPDOtNs

I think they make an unique addition to an aquarium despite their 3-4 months lifespan. The red/green ones, and the red-tail makes them pretty prominent and easy to spot.

Articles:

Instructions on raising fairy shrimp.
Journal article on using fairy shrimp as live feed to improve growth in prawns.

Personal Experience:

Thai: low hatch rate, longest life span was 3 1/2 weeks.

Trying some Redtails now.
 
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#33 ·
I've tried a couple times with these fairy shrimp but they all die on day 2 or 3. I'm clearly doing something wrong but I'm not sure what.

First attempt was in a 2 gallon tank under a CFL bulb, and was the only attempt where they made it to day 3. I could also see them starting to grow larger so something was going right at first at least.

Attempts 2 and 3 were in a half-gallon jar on a windowsill and did not go as well, probably due to drafts making the water too cold.

I'm probably going to try again tomorrow in the tank again. I've got spirulina algae powder this time, something I didnt have on the first attempt. I dont think the yeast feeding was a good idea.

Anyone have suggestions on if a bubbler is necessary? Most of the guides I've read seem to suggest using them, but I'm not entirely sure if that much agitation and motion in the water is good for the tiny larva.
 
#38 · (Edited)
Okay, finally started my Fairy Shrimp Jar!

The Eggs:


Supposedly 5k Thai Fairy eggs in the container; I used 1/3 in my jar; I dumped another little bit in my 20g just to see what happens (panda platies ate some)

The Container:


Dumped them in this ~1/2-3/4 gal Walmart vase, water was just tap treated with some Prime


All floating


I swirled it around a bit with my planting tongs and covered with saran wrap (so my cat won't drink the eggs)

Food Prep:


Added some yeast, pinch of sugar, pinch of flakes, bits of veggie sticks (don't know what I'm doing)


Added water, [STRIKE]microwaved 20 secs[/STRIKE] do not microwave!


Stirred, [STRIKE]covered[/STRIKE] don't cover too tightly or it will blow up!, and put in fridge


We'll see if any hatch tomorrow, and if my food poisons them all ;)
 
#42 ·
Been throwing in the odd ice cube in to try to get the container down to optimal hatching temperature (50-65F). Not sure how else to do it.


Threw in half a IAL leaf too so they'll have something to nibble on, threw in a pinch of baking soda to compenate for pH, they like it around 7.6

It's been about 24 hours now, and I see a handful of squirming specs of dust in the bottom of the vase. Fed a little bit of yeast soup.


You definitely can't see them in this pic
 
#43 ·
I've ordered Thai fairy shrimps before and they came in the same container. It might have been from the same site. Although mine were in clear gel capsules and not just dumped in the container itself.

For the setup the next time around I suggest using old aquarium tank water. If you can leave the water out in the sun so it gets green with algae and then put some eggs in.
There is no need for a "bubbler". That just kills them. When the air bubbles rise the tiny things get washed up in the current and they are still fragile. Any container with a large surface area for air transfer will do.

As for food, microwaving the solution just kills and cooks the yeast. So no microwaves. You want your yeast alive. Hot tap water is fine. Don't use as much sugar. You just want the sugar to quick start the yeast. Don't make so much yeast solution especially is you are going to put it in a sealed container. The more yeast food solution, the more gas is produced. The container will pop open and perhaps splatter inside your fridge.

After a while there will be some muck/slime build up on the bottom of the container. That is normal.
 
#44 ·
Lol thanks for the tip, didn't realize a little time in the microwave would kill them all. And yeah, the CO2 popped the lid on my 2nd batch. I added some crushed algae wafers & fish flakes this time.

There was about 100 squirming white specks of dust when I checked this morning:




Cloudy from new yeast solution. Put a black folder on the back and turned up contrast & zoom, the round brown ones are those with egg sacs still attached to them.
 
#45 ·
haha, I was typing my response late into the morning so I am tired. I didn't realize that the solution was microwaved for only 20 sec. My response was/is for the entire group in this thread. I'm too lazy to click the quote button :p Anywho...moving on...

I've used java moss and fire moss for the creatures to cling to at the bottom. As for the waterline, I use duckweed, frogbit and dwarf water lettuce. The roots of the floating plants are great for them to hang on to.

Sponge filters can also be used, BUT the device must be modded so that as the bubbles exit the top of the sponge at or near the waterline. Either propping the sponge filter nearer the top of the water or use some sort of tubing to extend the filter.
 
#48 ·
Well I'm going on attempt #4 now. I haven't had much luck yet but I've still got plenty of eggs so I'm willing to experiment.

This time I went with a gallon of the remineralized RO water that I use for water changes in my CRS tank. No air bubbles or heater.



It's a very interesting topic actually.

In most animals that survive desiccation, they survive by producing a sugar called trehalose. It has very high water-retention properties and so holds on to tiny amounts of water even in very dry environments. This prevents their DNA and proteins from breaking apart which they would if there was no water.

There are other methods too. Bdelloid rotifers instead use enzymes that actually reassemble the parts of their cellular machinery when they rehydrate. This has the interesting side effect of causing them to pick up random bits of DNA from dead organisms in the environment and incorporate those into their own genome.
 
#50 ·
Not much luck with this, substantially less shrimp in there this morning. The water was clearing up last night so I fed more yeast from the fridge.

Most of it settled to the bottom this morning, so I thought I'd give it a whirl -- bad idea. I think I killed more with my planting tong-created tornado. They're very delicate. The few that are still alive are much bigger, I'd say quadrupled in size.
 
#55 ·
Well I'm down to maybe 10-20 Thai fairy shrimp. It seems like the numbers go down everytime I feed them, I wonder if my yeast solution is killing them.


Added more frogbits, I keep wanting to give them some filtration, but any movement would probably kill them


Cropped shot. Lots of particles in water, the bottom of the vase is pretty much completely white/grey, probably from fairy shrimp and yeast corpses
 
#58 ·
HaHa, your ":alien: space ship is an air bubble, either on the inside of the glass, but more likely an air bubble IN the glass from when it was formed and stretched into shape.

*edit*

If that is in the glass as I think likely, you may want to be careful around that area of the container. Depending on the thickness of the glass, that will be a stress point as the amount of glass there will be minimal in that spot.
 
#59 ·
Yeah I think it's a chip. Walmart vases aren't known for quality. I got the red tail shrimps in the mail today, wondering if I should just throw them in or wait to start a new batch.

Will probably wait... read early bacteria/algae bloom will smother baby shrimp. Hoping these are hardier.

Actually... I think I'll throw some in, just to see if they grow in stale water and will interbreed with the Thai?


10k eggs, came in an envelope. I guess the Thai container maybe really had 5k eggs?


Filmy water starting to smell, ugh

What sucks about fairy shrimp is you can't keep a sustainable colony for fish food, since the eggs have to dry and freeze before becoming active. Maybe I'll try some ostracods?
 
#60 ·
I don't think that is necessarily the case. I'm not positive about fairy shrimp, but I know that in brine shrimp there are 4 basic components in the reproductive cycle.

1. parthenogenisis
2. eggs that hatch immediately (no drying cycle)
3. eggs that need to dry and and be immersed
4. eggs that need to dry and be immersed TWICE

Hopefully the fairy shrimp are close enough in biology that they also follow this cycle.
 
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