sirdarksol

I'm thinking that I want to try breeding these guys, but they can't breed in a typical freshwater aquarium. They need salt to survive through their larval stage.

So I need to find out as much as I can about the wild habits of the bamboo shrimp. Hopefully, I'll be able to work something out from that. Do the adults ever move to anything that comes close to brackish water, or are the larva just released to float downstream into the ocean? If the adults do move into brackish water, how long do they stay there? That sort of thing.
I've done some searches (and I need to remember my password to get into the college library's database, so I can access some more scientific journals), but I've only come up with information regarding keeping them in aquaria.

lilFishyfish

(I'm sure you've already read this) but I've been reading about it all I can find is that is says in nature the preg female will move to brackish water prior to hatching the eggs and then the larva will go through many stages in full strength salt water before finding its way back to the river. So I guess you'd move the preg female to brackish water increase the salt slowly after they hatch and then maybe as they grow decrease it slowl y..... I wish there was more info about it. Like details and such. It seems a lot of people say its like trying to breed amano shrimp. It seems like it would be a pretty awesome thing if you could bred them. I've never owned a bamboo shrimp but I've owned other types of shrimp and crawfish and am totally fascinated by them!!

sirdarksol

So far, they're only caught wild, and it would be excellent if I could breed them and have captive-bred ones to sell.

Okay, so I'd have to watch to see when the female was pregnant and move her to a separate tank that I would slowly up the salinity in. Remove her, readjust her to the freshwater, and then keep upping the salinity in the larva tank.

Anyone know if they carry their eggs like amanos? Will it be obvious, or am I going to have to guess?

My next concern is: When are the larvae ready for fresh water? When they look like miniature shrimp?

This would be so much easier if I knew if the adults could survive in mildly brackish water. I could easily raise them in the brackish water, thus giving the larvae a chance to survive long enough for me to find them, catch them, and put them in a separate tank.

lilFishyfish

I'd like to buy some hehe!! I'm thinking they would look like tiny shrimp when they are ready for freshwater and they most likely need gentle current, probably the same as a amano shrimp, I'm sure it has to be slow process the water changing from brackish to salt to brackish to fresh. If its like amano shrimp (I've heard it is) they are so small when hatched you can't see them really and they eat phytoplankton. About 2-3 weeks they are visible and around 6 weeks they molt and look like "adult amano shrimp". Maybe its kinda like that same process? So it might take about 6weeks until they are ready for fresh? Its worth a try thats for sure! Please keep me updated!! If I find anymore info that might be useful I'll post it.

Plecolover12

Well, I will be getting one.