My journey for breeding Amano shrimp

[accordztech]

Well I been researching for a while to find that many people have a hard time breeding Amano shrimps. People argued mild salinity and many have sucess with full salinity.

I noticed my pregnant female a week ago. So since the offspring are going to die in freshwater, I might as well spend a little money and try to see if I can raise them.

Setup:
8.8 Gallon tank (borrowed from Alyssa) Free
Marine salt for 10 gallons $6
Salinity 33ppm via refractometer Free
no heater
21w home depot clamp light. Previously obtained

I personally think 34ppm would be better, lets hope its good enough. My ammano is looking great, and now I can start seeing black dots on the eggs...anytime soon.

Ill post pictures. But as of now a picture of water in a aquarium is kinda lame lol.

[mach_six]

Just curious, what's optimal water parameters and how long before they started to breed?

I bought over 10 large ones for over 3 months now and haven't seen any mating going on.

I'm not sure if it's the water being soft since I have a few large driftwood, I recently added a small bag of crushed coral in a media bag to raise the pH to more neutral some and provide some calcium.

I plan on breeding them but I have a reef tank and just plan on using the refugium to grow them out but need them to breed first.

Good luck!

[james0816]

Glad to see more people doing things like this.

Good luck and keep us all posted on the developments.

[Newman]

I'm interested in these endeavors too. I'm not going to attempt this myself until I move (in a few months) but am interested in seeing who has the most success with this. I too have reef tanks, and can see that it would be simple to get an amano growing tank going...

What kind o parameters are you going to raise them in?
Also a pic of your rearing tank wouldn't be boring at all, it coud show how its setup and what is in it (for example an air hose at least and the light)
The light is a 100W equivalent (CFL)?
You mentioned that you will be using 34ppt SW. Thats 1.026 SG right? you dont think that they will do better at slightly lower salinity? 1.026 is the upper range for reef lol.

Also is there a reason why you will not be using a heater? I hear the zoea grow better at about 75F...as long as food is available.

Which brings me to the final question on what you will be feeding the zoea until they morph to shrimp?

[jasonpatterson]

Originally Posted by mach_six

Just curious, what's optimal water parameters and how long before they started to breed?

Best of luck accordztech!

Mine started breeding after perhaps 3-4 months. I've only had one female berry so far though (twice.) Had another that saddled and kept her saddle for probably 2 months before it slowly but surely disappeared. No idea what the ideal parameters are, but these can adapt to quite a range of conditions. I'm expecting my next batch of zoeas in about 2 weeks.

[accordztech]

Originally Posted by mach_six

Just curious, what's optimal water parameters and how long before they started to breed?
Good luck!

Honestly, I dont know. I dont ever check my water parameters unless something is going on. But the tank is planted, co2 running, and 4 wpg. Things live in there, like a normal tank...Ph im guessing around 6.5, temp from 72-78 degrees...I add GH booster once a week. I havent seen these guys breed until latley....

Originally Posted by Newman

What kind o parameters are you going to raise them in?
Not sure, just standard salt water, 33/34 ppm full salt water. Not cycled or anything, I havent read many people "who succeeded" that cycled the tank
Also a pic of your rearing tank wouldn't be boring at all, it coud show how its setup and what is in it (for example an air hose at least and the light)
Soon I will get a picture
The light is a 100W equivalent (CFL)?
Well the stupid bulb keeps burning out. I swear the tank is coverd, and the light just keeps going out. I keep going back to home depot to exchange it. But the 100w is the same as 43watts I think. It puts out around 1600 lumens. But I did put a 150 watt one that is the same as 63watts and 2800 lumens...that one broke lol. So now its standard 100 watt 43 watt equivalent for now, one blew out already....tomorrow the other will follow. I talked to home depot and showed them a picture of my setup, they said it SHOULD work...so If anything ill get another brand.

You mentioned that you will be using 34ppt SW. Thats 1.026 SG right? you dont think that they will do better at slightly lower salinity? 1.026 is the upper range for reef lol.
I have read that most that do it with lower salinity actually dont have sucess and the only ones who has is the ones who did full salt content.
http://www.shrimpnow.com/content.php...imp-breeding-2
http://caridina.japonica.online.fr/English/Elevage.htm

Also is there a reason why you will not be using a heater? I hear the zoea grow better at about 75F...as long as food is available.
Well im lazy to put one in, lol. Since the light is going to be on 24/7 im guessing the water will sit around 74 degrees. Ill do more testing since the tank is setup already to see at what degree the water is sitting at.

Which brings me to the final question on what you will be feeding the zoea until they morph to shrimp?
I will be feeding them some pytoplankton. Its a bottle that has algae ready to grow. I got it in a bottle that has to be kept in the freezer. What I started doing was dosing it in the tank but I never really seen any difference. So I went on YOUTUBE and saw that reef guys were making pytoplankton reactors, which is just saltwater...a bottle, and a air hose with a light source. Then they just dose it and run it...the algae grows quite quickly. I dont run the light all day, just a normal light cycle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG9X2E2V2Kg

[accordztech]

Im not going to use that bulb, but this was a huge 300 watt bulb I saw at home depot....OMG!! lol

Also a pic of your rearing tank wouldn't be boring at all, it coud show how its setup and what is in it (for example an air hose at least and the light)

As requested!


The foil is there to direct the rest of the light into the tank. Light stays on 24/7...blows out every few days. LOL. THe shoe boxes are there because at night, I put a towel over the whole tank so I can sleep.


The dots on the glass is algae


Here is my algae colony. The clearest one is very new, the others a few days old...The brown is the algae.

[accordztech]

Originally Posted by jasonpatterson

Best of luck accordztech!

Mine started breeding after perhaps 3-4 months. I've only had one female berry so far though (twice.) Had another that saddled and kept her saddle for probably 2 months before it slowly but surely disappeared. No idea what the ideal parameters are, but these can adapt to quite a range of conditions. I'm expecting my next batch of zoeas in about 2 weeks.

I hate waiting for my amano to finally let out her eggs. I dont know when, but I can see white eyes...not black eyes on her belley...do you know much longer it will be?

Have you had luck with breeding these guys? What did you feed them...

[tbarabash]

Excited to see the results

[mach_six]

I have one berried now, noticed it this earlier this week. My 55G at work has driftwood in it and I'm wondering it was too acidic for them since I didn't really boil it. prior to that, I added about 1/2lb or so of crushed coral in a media bag into the filter.

I see others have used Kent's liquid products which I have for my reef so I wonder why they don't work so well when the micron size is the same as DT's live phytoplankton? I got the powdered stuff too but hoping they don't require live to make it easier to raise.

I have the large Marina hang on tank that I'm going to throw them in. I use it as a cheap refugium with chaeto now.

[Newman]

a 21watt CFL is a 100W incandescent equivalent (usually) so I'd jsut use one of those...wont blow out your lamp...plus im worried that you're eventually going to lose the entire lamp if that keeps happening.

according to those links, SG of 1.024 and 1.025 is best.

what kind of phyto is it? phyto can't take being frozen or w/o light can it?

[accordztech]

Originally Posted by Newman

a 21watt CFL is a 100W incandescent equivalent (usually) so I'd jsut use one of those...wont blow out your lamp...plus im worried that you're eventually going to lose the entire lamp if that keeps happening.

according to those links, SG of 1.024 and 1.025 is best.

what kind of phyto is it? phyto can't take being frozen or w/o light can it?

The lights are trippy. Even my other tank with the light raised with a 21w bulb will blow in about 3 months. There is nothing different and its just a lamp, a light, and a cord. Im baffled but glad to have home depot return policies lol.

I just dialed in my SG and its dead on 1.025. As for the phyto I actually read the label this time. Its phytofeast. I dont know if I would freeze it, just leave it in the fridge.

My amanos eggs are finally having black dots on them. Its about time! I noticed she hides more now and latley I been feeding her much more than before. I used to feed the tank 2x a week...now I feed it every day.

I was thinking of isolating her in a breeding net but I dont really want to stress her out by catching her. I read somewhere that the easy way to catch them is to turn the lights off and then shine a flashlight at the surface. The zoes are attracted to light and then use a pipet to suck them out. Maybe I will do that.

[accordztech]

Originally Posted by Newman

Also is there a reason why you will not be using a heater? I hear the zoea grow better at about 75F...as long as food is available.

I took some tank specs. It sits from 70.5F to 72F. I might add a heater, but im worried that the heat from the heater might harm the zoes if they touch it. What do you think?

[Newman]

i think your should be fine at 72F as long as its not too cold or warm.

[accordztech]

Well its been getting colder, and now the temp sits at 68 degrees. I was going to put a heater in today, but after a huge cleaning on my nano (where my amano is) she decided to give birth! I tried not to stress the tank or anything, but I swear I never saw black dots (even though I THOUGHT I did before).

Now im wondering if I should put the zoes in the salt water now, or wait till the tank heats up a little bit.

Im counting maybe 75 zoes right now.