Pregnant Ghost Shrimp

[PK Tester]

Hey all...I recently bought some gost shrimp from my local fish store. The large female has round egg like green things floating in her abdomen. I read these were eggs...Has anyone ever raised the fry? I need to know as I would like to keep these baby shrimp! Any help would be aprrecitated!

[Sati]

I know there have been a few posts about pregnant ghost shrimp. You might do a search in the FW section for info.

[madasafish]

Yeah, I had 3 ghost shrimp larvae for a while in a separate container. They disappeared...

The females are often pregnant in tank settings. I believe the male impregnates the female (unlike many but not all fish, in which the male fertilizes the laid eggs). This means that you can separate off the female into a separate tank and allow her to lay. You can put a small amount of fry food (e.g. First Bites) in there, but the babies will more than likely survive off any detritus in the new container. The 3 I had survived unbeknownst to me for about a month before I found them swimming around in a barely-filtered QT tank I wasn't using. Baby ghost shrimp's endurance works in your favor here: they're pretty tough.

[PK Tester]

Well thanks so much madasafish...any recomendations on a contianer to put her in along with the fry? I'd say my room temperature drops down to 65 inbetween when the heater kicks on and off.

[madasafish]

Well, these shrimp are endemic to North America, mainly in the middle-latitude states such as Mississippi etc. They can certainly survive in water as cold as 65 degrees both in my experience, and they must if they live in such rivers and lakes/ponds.

A small container with an air hose should be sufficient. You don't want to filter these guys to kingdom come (they're small), and they really don't need a whole lot of chem or other filtration since they possess so little biomass. Others may disagree with me on this, of course, but I stick by my assessment that they're tenacious, hardy little shrimp.

So, you could place the female in a 1 or 2.5 gallon tank, or even in a small plastic tupperware dish with just water (gravel will make it harder to see the eggs) and perhaps a few leaves or plant stems. This should be sufficient. Watch the babies grow. At first, they'll eat whatever they can find. If you really want to culture baby daphnia or brineshrimp they might eat this eventually. And the occasional sliver of an algae wafer would be in order too.

Good luck!!! This shouldn't be terribly difficult, but don't get discouraged if they don't make it the first time. The females are pregnant quite often. Just keep your eye out.

[PK Tester]

madasafish...I read so many places that they require infusoria...Would my java be enough to cover for these little shrimp? Others I don't know what to feed them right away. I'll be sure to drop a small sliver of an algea tablet in too...I have a small 1/2 gallon fish bowl? Would that do? lol

[KatieJ]

Didn't want to post a new thread when there were other threads like this, so I'm reviving a (really) old one! I bought 8 ghost shrimp today and noticed that 3 or so were berried. I'm so excited. Unfortunately one of said females didn't make it soon after being drip acclimated, poor thing. :<
I really hope the other two don't drop their eggs or eat them... I have a 1 gallon, unfiltered (but can be heated) tank I could toss them in for a bit; when/how long should I do so? Should I put some java moss in to let the babies hide so they don't get eaten, or something else?

[Atxpunx]

It's difficult to raise the fry. Despite what people say I think the fry are freshwater. It's just that tanks don't have enough food for them to survive off of. Good luck and I really mean it. Keep us informed.

[KatieJ]

Hm, see, that's what I was worried about. I've no experience in breeding shrimp, obviously - only fish I've bred were mollies and guppies. So would some sort of liquid insect larvae (daphnia/infusoria? Forgive me, I'm bad with insects >.<) or reeeeally really really fine crushed algae wafer or some other type of food work?

[Atxpunx]

From what I've read, the daphnia things are supposed to be enough, or liquid fry food. Also bigger ghost shrimp will eat the fry. Don't suck them up when doing water changes.