I'm trying my hand at breeding Amano Shrimp!

So far so good, these little critters are keeping me very busy, every hour there are a few dozen or so eggs that hatch so I'm constantly having to monitor them, I've already fed them fry food in the morning and phytoplankton at around lunch, they seem to be doing well, they've changed color from white to brown, I believe this is good as it means they're eating!

 

First day down, not sure what the mortality rate is as I've opted for even bigger containers again and split the Zoas between the two of them to minimize pollution in them so it's pretty hard to get an idea but there's still a ton of the little guys, it's going pretty smooth aside from when I sat on my hydrometer and broke it.

 

Hi guys, so things are going very well, on day 5 now, I would estimate that there's around 200+ of the little guys still, there doesn't seem to be much of a mortality rate, they haven't really gotten any bigger but I've noticed that their bodies are changing a lot, the main thing I've noticed is that their tiny eyes seem to have grown bigger and have moved outwards, their behavior has also changed and they seem to be way more active. I'm feeding them four timer a day 2 doses of phytoplankton and 2 loads of fry food. The tanks are looking more like plankton cultures than any thing else though as I've unfortunately been a bit heavy handed with the phytoplankton doses but from what I've researched, this wont cause any harm. As for water changes, ill be doing a 20%change on day 7, just a bit apprehensive as things are going well and I hope the water change doesn't mess it up, also really worried about sucking up a few of them by mistake. I have really battled with getting shots of them as they are so tiny but here's a few pics.

 

I'm just posting here to follow this. It looks awesome.

 

Good luck with project. I hope you crack the code. Did you go full salt or brackish?

 

Thanks mate, I went full salt, 1027 SG.

 

Hey guys so small update, it's been exactly a week since the little zoas were born, unfortunately there has been a noticeable mortality, I reckon around 30%, however there are still a lot of them, estimate around 100 -150. I've transferred them all into one bucket now which is squeaky clean. I decided to put them in a new bucket as from my understanding, around the 7 day mark is when they start falling to the bottom and malting and if the bottom is dirty, there is a possibility of bacteria at the bottom attacking them during this vulnerable stage, so I've increased the feeding as there's obviously no more diatoms for them. Their behavior has also changed, and I'm a bit worried, there are a few, around 30 or so of them that are hanging on the surface, almost floating on top and "flick flacking", very strange but hopefully it nothing to worry about. I've also done big water changes, around 50% between today and yesterday and I've removed the air stone and replaced it with a sponge filter. The water changes were an absolute MISSION as it was extremely difficult to do it without sucking them up along with the waste water, I eventually siphoned the water out with an air pipe and an airstone attached to it to prevent this, it took hours! FYI the smaller bucket has berried cherries in it.

 

Just double check these on the water surface. I had the same issue and I’ve watched them for hours, they can’t get back down


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Nice man, I wonder if using a kreisel to raise the zoas would work?

Avoid the bacteria and settlement issues as well.

Growin' plants bro

 

Hi guys, so first of all, apologies for the lack of updates, my first batch of zoas only made it to day 8, then they all died, I'm not sure what went wrong but I think that I was a bit too aggressive with the water changes. Anyways I figured instead of constantly posting updates that may end in failure, I decided to only post updates once I was successful. Well I'm not successful yet but seems like I may have hit the nail on the head this time as I've got my next batch of zoas to day 27 so far, so shortly after my first attempt, it wasn't long before I had another buried female, so I decided to do things differently this time. I bought a 30L fish tank and filled it up with marine water (26 sg), once the zoas hatched I popped them into the tank and fed them as I did with the first batch (phytoplankton morning and night with 2 tiny feeds of fry food in-between. After one week I popped a sponge filter in the tank with minimum flow and poured in a batch of good bacteria (seachem stability) with the aim of establishing a colony of good bacteria in the sponge filter. This time I went in a completely different direction and have done absolutely no water changes, just topped up the water level when needed. This time I also cleaned the bottom of the tank by just wiping it with my bare hands and I extended the length of time I run the light (from 7am -10pm) which has improved the diatoms growth which has really benefits the little zoas as they have taken on an orange color which from what I know, indicates that they are well fed. The zoes seem to be in the 6th stage of development, they now have tiny little legs but still don't have swimmerts and still swim "backwards". They have gotten bigger but I still can't see jack $%^ though but luckily my phone camera somehow seems to zoom enough for me to get a good idea on what's going on, speaking of which I've taken a few photos of the little guys. There are probably around 100 - 200 of them still of roughly the 300 -400 that I started with so there has been noticeable mortality but this is expected.

 

Noice!! Now for the home stretch, good luck


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Well done!

 

Well done! Just an idea, I use a blue LED light running 24/7 when I raise Cory fry. The main idea behind this is to grow the diatom algea and also create green water and also it makes it easier to see into the water. In fact if you just shine a blue light into a bucket or tank of green water you will me ammazed how it illuminates everything living in the water.

 

Blue lights do look amazing


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In one of those tanks. Doesn't the clown loaches eat the shrimp?

 

Thanks everyone, @David Kusner thanks for the tip

 

Awesome progress, wishing you continued success

 

Onward and upward!!

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