Cleaner Shrimp Hatching

Last night after lights off, I noticed that there was hundred of tiny creatures swimming in my tank. I observed it closely & found that they were shrimp larva. I’ve caught a few of them, and they r still surviving in the net which I placed below the water surface. I’ve tried to take some photo but it was just too tiny to get the shot.
My tank have 2 cleaner shrimps which I purchased about 2 months ago, I large & the other smaller in size. Last few day I found that the larger 1 with its belly look bulged and full, but I didn’t know that it’s carrying any eggs. Anyone has tried raising the baby shrimps?

This is the egg carrying shrimp, the 1st batch of shrimps larval just survived for about 6 days and all dead now . As of today I observed that the mother shrimp is starting to carry eggs again , here a shot I’ve just taken.

Very lucky reefer to witness this as I am still waiting for that day .........

Originally Posted by nim75sg

Very lucky reefer to witness this as I am still waiting for that day .........

Too bad the larval just couldn't survived, i fed it with spray dried phyto and the larval actually start to grow and have an eye stalk, but they just couldn't make it. Guess it's very difficult to raise them.

hehe it's very common the cleaner shrimps to spawn ...but the survival rate of the fries is about 0.01%, mainly because of the food.

they need to be fed baby brine shrimp.

i have a pair of cleaner, and both of them are spawning now .. hehe waiting for them to hatch...

Originally Posted by angmoh

hehe it's very common the cleaner shrimps to spawn ...but the survival rate of the fries is about 0.01%, mainly because of the food.

they need to be fed baby brine shrimp.

i have a pair of cleaner, and both of them are spawning now .. hehe waiting for them to hatch...

I heard that the fry will filter phyto as food and when they slowly grow up, they might prey on larger food size such as brine shrimp baby, rotifer etc. agree with u that most can't survive because of incorrect food sizes.

[KaLiB]

From what i have gathered so far regarding food, the best option could be to obtain live rotifers for food as the young larvae area capable of hunting its own live food. As time goes by(Can't remember how long), bbs can be sub. in as a food instead of rotifers.

When the larvae are first born, bbs cannot be used as their still a little too big for the larvae to consume. From what i know, phyto is not consumed by the larvae. There are many articles on breeding shrimps, the breeding and raising of larvae of cleaners is similar to that of peppermint shrimps.

Agree with angmoh and flame_angel, the biggest challenge to raising the larvae is the food. Its not easy to obtain a suitable food source for them.

Hi Kalib,
Rotifer is rare to find in any LFS right? I'd like to try breed them if can find this food source.

if i'm not wrong i think i saw at hongleong at west coast way,henry's shop. tried to breed before but conditions apparently quite demanding coz u have to find a way to filter the water without sucking the fry, and also read that survival rate is higher when using a container with no dead corners.

If you're trying i wish u all the best bro!

[KaLiB]

Setup wise, from what i have gathered, the best option could be just to opt for a simple bare tank with air bubbles to aerate the water. No airstones are to be used, just air tubes.

Water changes and siphoning of the fries should only be done using an air tube. Overall, its very demanding and challenging to raise cleaner shrimp fries and requires alot of time.

From what limited knowledge i have, if the fries can survive for the 1st 100days, your almost there already.

flame_angel: Can't help you as i myself have no idea where to obtain this food source locally.