Scientistkid

I have ghost shrimp. The first time they bred, the eggs were dark green-brown. I have also read about them being this colour. However, they bred them again and the eggs are white. What does this mean, and when should a separate the female? Also, will the female eat her babies, and can I feed them fry food?

enthusiast

hey kid!
I also breed ghost shrimp, infact if you take a look at my gallery you'll be able to see the 10 gal i have dedicated strictly to shrimp

You've gotten them to breed- thats the hardest part! the most is on their own. seeing that you have shrimp, i'd assume you have plants? you dont need to feed the baby shrimp as long as you have live plants, they'll feed off the the micro organisms associated with the plant life. the floating plant hornwort works great and is readily available at most local fish stores (LFS)

As far as seperating the female afterwards this is not necessary. The 2 different colored eggs you witnessed was merely the maturity of the eggs. As it gets closer time for the eggs to hatch, they'll get darker in color. When you seen that they were white the babies were still developing inside. The mom shrimp holds these eggs under her legs, even though it appears they might be in her stomach, they are not, she's just holding them there (if you watch close you'll notice they slip out from time to time, making her have to stop swimming to pack them back under her). When the babies hatch they hang onto her swimmerettes (i think thats what they call those little legs the shrimp move to swim?) until they are released.

Both the mom shrimp as well as any others will eat the babies, but they're small, and swim fast. Keep in mind though the main predator is the fish. A baby shrimplet is a tasty meal any fish would love to catch. To better your chances you'd be best off by seperating any pregnant shrimp in a smaller tank with live plants. Cover your filter intake with a fine mesh (i use pantyhose) so that the babies wont get sucked into it). When you see the mom isn't carrying the eggs anymore, you can take her out and put her back with the rest of the shrimp in the bigger tank she came from. It might take you awhile before you even see any shrimp at all in the shrimp tank, the babies are miniatures of the adult, and about the size of a large sea monkey!! very small.

good luck hope this was of some help!!

Fish Guy

Is it required to take out the female after the eggs hatch? and male?
What type of substrate is best?

enthusiast

no it is not necessary to take the male out or seperate them at all for that matter.

As long as you have a nicely planted tank, you wont have to worry about food or the babies being eaten as food, they're amazingly small and fast!
just definately make sure your filter intake is covered up as that'll be their biggest threat

as far as substrate in my 10 gal planted shrimp tank, i actually have none.. In fact i just went to lowe's and bought one of those huge bags of pea gravel that they use for landscaping, it'd be in the garden section, its a great aquarium gravel and so much cheaper than a small bag of labeled aquarium gravel at any pet shop. But in my 75 gal community planted tank i can say i use ECO COMPLETE as it looks great, works great, i love it and the fish seem to enjoy it equally