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Breeding Amano / Yamato shrimp

Looking good Richard, surprised this topic hasn't seen more activity!

Perhaps like me everyone's just watching how you get on but not commenting because they know nothing about raising these type of shrimp :) Interesting stuff though :clap: another little part of the hobby that is both interesting and fairly cheap to do.
 
i know nothing about keeping shrimp in general anyway :) never once been able to keep shrimp longer than a week before they all died
 
AverageWhiteBloke said:
Looking good Richard, surprised this topic hasn't seen more activity!

Perhaps like me everyone's just watching how you get on but not commenting because they know nothing about raising these type of shrimp :) Interesting stuff though :clap: another little part of the hobby that is both interesting and fairly cheap to do.


I know nothing about this side of shrimp keeping, regards to Saltwater Zoes etc.
Which is why I'm asking. I'm not contemplating doing it in the future, just understanding the process is good :)
 
So far so good for a noob. :) I am surprised in these things just seem to be getting dumped and syphoned from one container to the other. They must be hardy little critters, I would have thought if embarking on this sort of thing the hardest part other than keeping a good food supply would have been acclimatising them from one type of water to the other then back again but so far it appears not to have caused you any problems. I know little about shrimp, had a little planted set up about 5/6 weeks ago going I just need my RCS. See how I get on with them then investigate other species. Like you I'm just interested in how things work.
Anything interesting in small setups with little layout money wise is always interesting to me so I can do it at work. I used to breed all sorts of fish but unfortunately I work away from home these days and had to knock it on the head but shrimp are perfect. I can feed them up and they don't mind being left alone for a few days. Very rare I'm out of town for more than 5 consecutive days tops.
 
Cheers for all the support from you guys....If successful I will post all my steps.

After reading an old blog (2008) by Mike Noren, i did a15% water change and topped it off with adding 300ml of Phyto..... and gave it all a stir. The zoe’s grabbed hold of bits floating past but I am not sure whether they thought it was food or just grabbing something for comfort.

I am sure in real life though they would be subject to water movement from rain, floods or tide. A little activity in the tank might even do them some good.
 
REDSTEVEO said:
What temperature have you got your water at in the shrimp fry tank? Also what is the density salinity, mine is at 1.025

Room temp tank at 22.5 salinity at 1.025 also.

I have had problem gauging salinity. I first purchased a glass hydrometer then a chamber type with floating needle .. needless to say they both returned very different values :(

I then purchased a TMC refractometer and that gave a third reading.. after some thinking I decided the refractometer would be the most accurate.

Most blogs I have read say salinity should be about 35ppm so as my water was considerably less I addressed this in 2 x part water change.
 
Day 24.

One of my two attempts was failing... The second setup which had half my larvae was made up of old tropical tank water with Tropical Marine salt started to show signs of trouble. Since day 10 I could tell tank B was not as active.

I’m going to refer the failed tank as tank B and the current working one as tank A

What I noticed apart from the apparent reduced numbers in tank B was that the larvae were not advancing in size as much as the other project in tank A. The only difference between tanks A and B is the water in tank B was old tropical water (which i picked because i thought it would be balanced). The water used for tank A was pure fresh RO. There were some other very small differences in salinity (which I have been struggling to define accurately)

In a vain attempt to save what was left in B I sucked up the remaining 20 or so larvae and put them straight into tank A.

Tank A had some waste on its base so I conjured up a rigid tube and 6mm pipe to siphon up the bottom... then replaced the 2 lts with fresh mix and topped the lot off with some liquifry feed.

All my zoe’s are now in one tank.

For reference all my pictures are from tank A
 
REDSTEVEO said:
I notice from your pictures, some of the shrimp fry appear to be crooked, almost L - shaped. I was wondering if this is normal or are they suffering from lack of minerals to keep their shape?

If yours are 22 days old now what are you feeding them on?

The zoe's do seem crooked but when they swim they straighten out... they go back to being crooked when they float about.

Apart from the Phyto in the tank (which is still too green to see any further than about 7cm) i feed liquifry (just at random times)

They like the liquifry because they chase and grab the bits to stop them sinking.

Have also added some liquizel at random times
 
I cleaned out my tank from project B (left in the diatom brown algae that was growing on the inside) and am getting ready for next batch.

After applying my recent experience I have produced the following setup.

Tank 19lt, 35ppm salinity, Pure & fresh RO, 500ml Phyto, 5ml Stress Zyme+, 5ml Stress Coat+, Lights 24/7, Room temp. Air stone on slow bubble. All now mixed and operational.

The Stress Zyme and Stress Coat may help to keep the zoe’s and water conditioned but then again it may kill them off..

Will let you know in thread when the female is ready.
 
Day 26

Things are changing....

There have been some noticeable changes of the last 24 hours..

Firstly the zoe’s are far more active and they swim to the lower part of their tank whereas before they would just hang around the top 25% of the water.

Secondly they can swim in both directions so just stop and swim backwards instead of turning around. I have given thought to their swimming direction because actually if they look like they are swimming forwards are they not actually swimming backwards??? I ask this because since birth they have naturally swam backwards as their preferred method of direction!!

Thirdly their colour is changing from a light / transparent brown to a much darker brown. Parks of their body are more visibly defined because of colour and shade differences.

Fourthly they just keep grabbing at each other then sink together, about half way down they separate and swim back up. I have seen this activity before but not with this frequency.

Finally there kinked tails are straightening out more so, and on one or two zoe’s it looks like they flick it down to propel forwards.

I ground down some spirulina tablets into powder and mixed it with water for a feed and by chance discovered something... when I have fed spirulina powder before (as a ground paste with added water) it has always sunk to the bottom with little time for the zoe’s to feed, this time I used warm water to help the paste dissolve. What I discovered is when the paste is put into the tank (with a pipette) it floats up to the surface because the paste is warmer. I wafted the mix about and it formed a suspended cloud of green feed. The zoe’s seemed to like this because as the cloud moved with the slow water flow the zoe’s stopped with it.
 
Day 26

First signs of morph into shrimp.

Feeling nervous

As you can see other zoe’s still have a way to go

You can see the digital thermometer in the first pic.. shows how small things are

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Feeling nervous

:lol: The expectant father

Had a little look about for you and it would appear that the curling of tails and swimming backwards is usual for larvae. Most people recommend dropping salinity by 5ppm per day over a few days when they morph to shrimp stage which yours are clearly at (or most of them) going off your pics. One thing I did notice was a warning that you can get ammonia spikes as you change from saline to fresh water. Perhaps some ammonia absorbing sponge product could be dumped in the tank while this stage is going on. :bored:
 
AverageWhiteBloke said:
Feeling nervous
One thing I did notice was a warning that you can get ammonia spikes as you change from saline to fresh water. Perhaps some ammonia absorbing sponge product could be dumped in the tank while this stage is going on. :bored:

Cheers for the info... where could i find such a thing?

I have no marine testing kits either.. all my stuff is tropical.. I got a local maidenhead aquatics so Ill go there tomorrow for testers.
 
I'm not sure mate, surely someone does some resin in a net bag that's designed for putting in a canister filter though which should be ok just dumped in the tank in its bag. I will have a look when I get in. Just finishing work with this post then going home. BTW also noticed it's day 26 and the transition point to fresh water is usually 30 days for the larvae to turn into young shrimp so your about on schedule I would say. Some folk also say they have left them up to 2 months in saline water. Still looking to see if it's ok to put larvae in fresh water but I think it might be safer waiting for them all to be shrimp before diluting the water.

Another thing that got mentioned was your algae culture dying as you change to fresher water but not sure at what point yours will start eating normal commercial shrimp food.
 
AverageWhiteBloke said:
BTW also noticed it's day 26 and the transition point to fresh water is usually 30 days for the larvae to turn into young shrimp so your about on schedule I would say. quote]

BTW? Where do i find his blog? I have read so many that I can’t recall seeing everyone.

I’m away now until later but very much welcome your help.
 
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