New ghost shrimp questions.

[pistolero]

OK impulse buy this afternoon. I was at Petsmart and picked up 6 ghost shrimp. The guy there in the fish department is cool, I didn't pay any attention when he was getting them out, I was looking at the fish. So when he hands me the bag and says "there's some girls in there with eggs" I looked in the bag and sure enough he must have picked the 6 biggest fattest ones in the tank and 3 of them were obviously pregnant. So after getting them here I acclimate them to my 10 which isn't quite cycled yet. I have around 10 ppm nitrates and change 20% water every other day or so but the nitrites still run about 2 ppm. I have a little hornwort, and quite a few cabombas in there, and the snails that rode in on them.

So then I get to looking and the one pregnant female looks like she's about to pop any minute (I suppose, I've never actually seen this, but her "eggs" look much more developed than the others).

So I ran to the store to get a couple gallons of spring water thinking I'd take her out and put her in a gallon bowl or something and get the babies out, but now I'm thinking they'd probably have almost as good a chance in the tank.

Also the wife has one of those fountains out front and it's got algea in the water. I was thinking to grab an ounce or so of that in a syringe and put it in the tank for fry food. Is this a good idea or not? It's not really stagnant cause the fountain runs during the day, but it's definitely got green algea in it.

 

[librarygirl]

I'm not sure about the pond algae, I'd let someone with more knowledge answer that. Infusoria seems like the best thing to try to feed them from what I'm reading. Also not sure how well they'll do overall in a tank that isn't cycled...?

 

[Galligak]

Ghost shrimp may have the eggs, but they won't hatch in freshwater, they require either brackish or marine water. I'm not sure about the pond algae...

 

[jetajockey]

The algae thing is a good idea, as always when bringing in something from the outside you risk hitchhikers so it's best not to do this in a main tank.

As to whether they'll hatch, it's up in the air. There are some species of ghost shrimp that are full freshwater.

I don't know if the brackish ones will hatch or not in freshwater, I've read that they don't, but I don't know of anyone firsthand who has actually tested this out. The fry are so tiny since they have a larval first stage, so they are easy to miss, and if the water isn't saturated with infusoria/greenwater it's not likely that they'd stay around long enough to be spotted.

 

[Owl307]

ive had baby gohst shrimp before athough they they were in a pond like tank with lots of little things for them to eat. two survived to adulthood

 

[pistolero]

Well in the interest of scientific research I separated her into the bowl (it's like a 3/4 gallon or so 8" X 10" cylinder). I may not be able to raise the fry successfully but I should at least be able to tell if the shrimp I have can successfully give birth without salt in the water.
I took the syringe and put about one half a teaspoon of "green water" in there, and plan to keep the container under strong light during the daytime so the algea/infusoria might be enough to feed the tiny fry for a few days after hatching until they can consume some baby brine shrimp, crushed flake food, etc.

 

[Owl307]

Feeding shrimp shrimp???

 

[pistolero]

Feeding shrimp shrimp???

Of course!
"feed the baby shrimp newly hatched brine shrimp, rotifers, or a suitable liquid food."

From this link:
Tropical Inverts for Freshwater Aquariums: Ghost (Glass) Shrimp - Freshwater

 

[Owl307]

Interesting I'll have to try that some time

 

[pistolero]

Ha! She dropped them last night. I put her back in the 10 gallon. Didn't have time to look for the babies, woke up late for work.

 

[pistolero]

Well I'm back at the house. There's at least a dozen of those boogers swimming around in there. We'll see how many I can keep alive.

 

[pistolero]

Thought I lost two of the adults but at least one of the "shrimp" I removed was a molt shell because there are still at least 5 in the tank.
Giving the babies infusoria and egg yolk tonight and started a batch of BBB that should be ready tomorrow when I come home from work.
These apparently can give birth in fresh water. And either they don't go through a larval stage, or it's very fast. They are very small but as far as I can see they are tiny versions of the adults and they can swim around. For one thing she may have held them longer than normal due to the move and all, who knows?

 

[jetajockey]

Best of luck. Wish you would take photographs or at least document it with times/dates so that people can use it for reference, there is so much misinformation going around about ghost shrimp that this is a blessing.

One thing I can tell you for sure is that the ghost/grass shrimp name encompasses dozens of species of shrimp, so there are bound to be lots of differences when it comes to the small details.

 

[pistolero]

Ha, I wish I could take pics good enough to show these tiny things. As far as it goes, the posts show the dates so that's how I'll keep track.
Thanks!

 

[tarpon]

Sounds exciting. I'm gonna follow along

 

[pistolero]

First water change. This evening the fry have had more infusoria from the fountain outside and a couple of drops of boiled egg yolk. The water was getting a little smelly so...
I took a small cup and skimmed the top of the water off, carefully so as not to get any fry. I took a 4 foot piece of air tubing and put a stone on one end, stuck the end with the stone on it in the bowl with the fry in it and siphoned out about 2/3 of the water. Then siphoned bottled spring water back into the bowl with the stone in the bowl again.

 

[pistolero]

Well they seem to be doing OK, they're still alive. I don't know if they're big enough to eat baby brine shrimp yet. I'll try tonight and do another water change like last nights.

 

[iheartmyed9]

Awesome, i wanna pick up a few of these for my 55 gallon

 

[Owl307]

I've gotten young to adult hood only three but it still counts!

 

[pistolero]

I've gotten young to adult hood only three but it still counts!

Of course it does!
I think I lost a few last night, I tried a different technique for the water change and I believe they got sucked out. Back to the other way. The most I could count before was 17 maybe 18, now I think it's 14-15. They are getting bigger!