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Re: Ghost Shrimp


>Date: Tue, 2 Sep 1997 13:43:19 -0700 (PDT)
>From: "David Lyle Robinson" <robinson at ichips_intel.com>
>
>Has anybody had any experience propagating ghost shrimp?
>I've had a group of about 20 shrimp in a 10 gallon tank
>for several months now.  The females cycle through eggs
>every now and again, but so far I haven't seen a single
>baby shrimp.   
>
>  The current tank has a 1/2 inch of soil covered by
>1.5 inches of sand.  There is a sponge filter, a large
>piece of drift wood and some water sprite.  Duck weed
>covers the surface.  Algae is kept very low apparently
>by the shrimp and the reduced light provided by the
>duck weed.  There are no other tank inhabitants.
>I have fairly soft water, but have several crushed 
>shells and sand dollars in the tank to buffer the pH
>up.
>
>  So far, they have been subsisting on what little
>algae grows in the tank (and a fist sized glob of
>hair algae which they wittled away into nothing) and
>supplemental fish food.  I suspect that I just haven't
>yet stumbled on the "ideal" diet for either the adults
>or babies.
>
>Any ideas?

My first success in propagating ghost shrimp involved adding a ripe female
to a tank with green water.  She wound up dying after her eggs hatched, but
the nauplii survived, filter-feeding on the green water.  After a few
months, I had a batch of new ghost shrimp.

I've also successfully raised ghost shrimp in an unpopulated 55g tank
plant.  This tank produced high mortality rates because of the filtration
system.  Many of the nauplii would go through the filtration system and not
survive.

Ghost shrimp nauplii live as free-swimming little shrimplets in their newly
hatched, 1.5 - 2 mm state.  They float in the current head-down, looking
like slivers of glass in your water.  During this stage, they are filter
feeders.  When they moult, they look like little shrimp and can then both
filter-feed and can feed on food that they collect with their claws.

IMO, the biggest detriment (other than fish in the tank) to raising ghost
shrimp is a filtration system.  Possibly an airlift might be appropriate to
move water, but I wouldn't go farther than that.

I hope this helps,

David W. Webb           Texas Instruments
(972) 575-3443 (voice)  http://www.dallas.net/~dwebb
(214) 581-2380 (pager)  2145812380 at alphapage_airtouch.com