Baby Cleaner Shrimps

[kwan]

One of my cleaner shrimps has given birth to hundreds of babies last night. It was quite fascinating to watch the tiny little shrimps being squirted out. However, they made a good meal for the fish and the blood shrimp as I can't find any sign of the new borns this morning.

Now the question is how often does clean shrimp give birth? And is there anything I should do the next time or just let nature take its own course?

 

[Allivymar]

Hrmmm. Is this a FW or SW tank? FW shrimp aren't cleaner shrimp...not sure what type of shrimp you mean.

 

[kwan]

sorry it is salt water that I intended to post this. I shall move it.

 

[Allivymar]

Heh, no prob; sending it over now

 

[Anemoneman]

Cleaner shrimp (if there are more than one) will hatch eggs every 3 weeks or so. If you got to watch, you're lucky. Most people miss it since it happens after lights out. They usually never survive the night. They are eaten almost as fast as they are hatched. Must be delicious.

 

[kwan]

Yes, it did happen after lights out. I just so happen caught it in the middle of the act. It must have been delicious, the blood shrimp was so excited. I have never seen him swim so high in the water before.

 

[MadManMac]

Next time grab a turkey baster and try and get a few to put into another small tank. With a little care you could have a brood of cleaners to sell.

 

[kwan]

I actually got a few out, but didn't know what to do with them, so put them back in again. I shall keep a look out for them next time. What can I feed them with?

 

[BillyZ]

hmm you would have to do some reasearch but it shouldn't be too tough. Since the eggs are being released into the open water column I would guess they are already fertelized (if they are) and are sort of left to their own devices. So while in egg stage I would simply keep them in a QT type of tank with a small hunk of LR and plenty of water movement of the eggs. Once they hatch, i would also guess they would be algae/filter feeds so I would put a good quality PhytoPlankton mix into the QT.

BUT... these are all guesses... google is your friend. This site may have some good info.

 

[nugrad2005]

If you've got enough hiding places the shrimp should be able to just hide until they're big enough to come out. You have to figure that the parent shrimp is releasing hundreds if not thousands of eggs/brood. At least one is apt to cling to a piece of live rock and crawl inside. We have a 150 with at least 200lbs of rock and have had good success with "raising" baby cleaner shrimp. They will find places to hide, under one of our clams and on its shell is one of the places they love the most.

-Dan

 

[Anemoneman]

Sorry guys. It would be nice to be able to raise them but no dice. They have to go through several moltings before they are "sellable". You don't have the food or proper environment to raise baby shrimp to adulthood. Just can't be done by hobbyists.
They are great fish food tho.

 

[Guest]

Yep the only time I read about it being done was in a marine research lab. They are very difficult, and mortality rates are very high in captivity. So I would say you have a 0 chance of any making it what so ever.