Amano Shrimp breeding project

Hi everyone!

I have six Amano shrimp. Four are females and are walking around with eggs on their legs, a new batch every couple weeks. I feel bad seeing so many eggs die off every time, so I guilted myself into buying a nano cube 7l tank.

I bought some sea salt, a hydrometer that also measures density and some plankton. The kit says it has a sponge filter with pump, a heater, nano plants and nano substrate. I‘m planning on dropping the filter sponge in the main tank overnight, then putting some of the water from this one into the nano. Would half tank water, half fresh from the tap be ok? Or is that too much tank water? The kit comes with water conditioner, bacteria, and fertilizer.

The plan is to move a female to the nano when the eggs change to black (meaning, I think, that they’re fertilized) and hope for the eggs to survive. The plan is to make the water about 25ppm salt, as I hear it should be brackish but not outright salt water (did I get that measure right?). I read a couple posts and I’m now worried it won‘t work, any ideas what I‘m missing?

Would anyone know how best to aclimate the female to the new brackish water?
How long after she has laid the eggs should I leave her in there?
Can I put two (or all 4) females with eggs in the 7l at the same time?

I‘ll keep the thread updated with photos, etc. once I get the kit.

Any advice welcome!
Thanks a million!
Two of my female Amanos, just for fun:

 

Here is an article from another member that went through this project. I am pretty sure it is much harder than you think it is due to his experiences and the various phases of the amano shrimplet growth. Hopefully it will give you some guidance.
Amano breeding project

 

Here is an article from another member that went through this project. I am pretty sure it is much harder than you think it is due to his experiences and the various phases of the amano shrimplet growth. Hopefully it will give you some guidance.
Amano breeding project

Thanks Angela, really nice of you and a very interesting read.. it makes me feel slightly more confident in what I‘m trying to achieve but still some open questions about the female being in the brackish water and the set up I have being sufficient…

 

Maybe you can tag the author. All I know is that breeding them is very difficult and time consuming which is why the majority of the ones available for purchase are wild caught and a bit more expensive that some other types.

 

So as promised, I‘m sharing here the next steps of my pet project. I looked up a lot of things in the meantime and I‘ve come up with a plan that I hope will work and happy for anyone who wants to chip in with thoughts or experiences.

I got my base kit today and couldn‘t wait to get it all out of the box and set up:








I added the gras even though I‘m not sure it will survive the next steps. I am buying Marimo moss balls from my usual store on Saturday, as that‘s the only plant I found that should survive the change from fresh to salt water.

So the plan is to move one female to this tank once her eggs turn black around the 18th day after she becomes berried. I marked on the calendar that should be about 10 days from now.

I‘m receiving more kit tomorrow with aquarium salt, an additional LED light and I have a plastic bucket with lid as well as a pump I can use to make the salt water (with JBL salts and distillates water) and start cultivating phytoplankton. I‘m hoping 10 days of culturing the plankton should be enough to have a good base of very nutritious salt water for the larvae.

The idea is that, once she‘s laid the eggs I‘ll move her back to her home tank. Then I immediately start the drip line with the salt water so that the entire tank is replaced by saltwater within 48 to 60 hours. In details I plan to shine a light on the bottom of the tank to attract the larvae then siphon out about half the water, start the drip line, stop it overnight, continue in the morning, etc. until it‘s done and the entire tank is saltwater. I‘ve placed the tank on my work desk so I can keep an eye on it at all times during the next couple weeks. The idea is that I am constantly checking salinity and adding distillate water as I go along. The larvae should turn into micro-shrimp around day 20. When I see them start swimming forward, I‘ll do the same drip line process to move them back to fresh water, directly sourced from the tank they will be moving to when they‘re adults.

I know that each of these steps will cause some casualties. I am hoping that each time I’ll have at least a portion of them that survive. A the last stage I‘m hoping for at least a few survivors that I will then keep in the micro tank another two or three weeks until they are big enough not to get eaten in the community tank.

I hate the idea of living things dying under my care but I comfort myself with the thought that if I don‘t try this, the eggs would all die in the community tank within a couple days after the shrimp lay them anyways.

Dunno if any of this is going to work, but I‘ll post about as I go along and also my salt water plankton-growing set up once I have it.

Any comments are welcome!
Timmy1027 would you like to weigh in? Thanks!

 

So it took me a while to get back on the forum. I now have a 10l sea water phytoplankton culture going.

At first I tried in an jar, but then decided to move the contents of the jar over to the bigger container, because evaporation in the jar was just crazy!

Current set up:




What I have is a small 100l pump, an air stone, and an underwater LED, supplemented by a blue light LED over the top. It does heat up a bit, but not enough to drastically increase evaporation.

The water is cloudy because my fish store suggested that the phytoplankton coral food might contain some viable phytoplankton that could grow from the liquid. I’m sure there’s some live microorganisms in there, because the green from the bottle disappeared after 48h and all that’s left is now cloudy particles in suspension in the water.

I’m hoping the light being on 24-7 will be enough to grow some until the shrimp are due - on Sunday latest I have to move my female to the small tank and I might actually do this on Saturday if I see her start picking at them.

Would anyone know if liquid coral food pictured here could be ok to feed the shrimp larvae as well, just in case I can’t grow enough until they hatch?




Thanks!!

 

The whole endeavour has been a disaster. I moved my shrimp to the small tank, and for several days she didn‘t drop off her eggs. Then one morning I looked and they were all gone from her legs, and none left in the tank. I still took her out and tried to see if any were left but with sand and things inside the tank it was impossible to see anything.

I still went through with my idea, emptied half the water, added sea water drip by drip etc.. but after a few days it was clear there was no life in the tank. So I threw everything out and decided to go with an empty salt water tank with only Marino moss balls inside. The small tank grew plankton nicely. So when another one of my shrimp had nicely black eggs, I took her out and put her in a jar of tank water as I saw on the web a successful breeder was doing.


The first few hours she was swimming around furiously and it looked like she kicked off loads of her eggs. But by the time I checked the jar, they were all gone so I surmised she was eating them.

I went and bought some mesh. I put it in the jar bottom so should could not eat her eggs.




It was night, so I changed some of the water in the jar and went to bed. In the morning she was dead. I hated myself for what I did to her… and I found another shrimp dead in the main tank!

This may sound crazy but I think the shrimp are connected. Some time back I saw one of my females changed sex to male so there were exactly three of each sex in the tank. So when the female died in the other room, the male died in the main tank as well… dunno for sure but I‘m done with this project it really is difficult and I‘m not skilled enough.

So now to find a good use for my tiny 10l tank.

 

The whole endeavour has been a disaster. I moved my shrimp to the small tank, and for several days she didn‘t drop off her eggs. Then one morning I looked and they were all gone from her legs, and none left in the tank. I still took her out and tried to see if any were left but with sand and things inside the tank it was impossible to see anything.

I still went through with my idea, emptied half the water, added sea water drip by drip etc.. but after a few days it was clear there was no life in the tank. So I threw everything out and decided to go with an empty salt water tank with only Marino moss balls inside. The small tank grew plankton nicely. So when another one of my shrimp had nicely black eggs, I took her out and put her in a jar of tank water as I saw on the web a successful breeder was doing.


The first few hours she was swimming around furiously and it looked like she kicked off loads of her eggs. But by the time I checked the jar, they were all gone so I surmised she was eating them.

I went and bought some mesh. I put it in the jar bottom so should could not eat her eggs.

View attachment 814942

It was night, so I changed some of the water in the jar and went to bed. In the morning she was dead. I hated myself for what I did to her… and I found another shrimp dead in the main tank!

This may sound crazy but I think the shrimp are connected. Some time back I saw one of my females changed sex to male so there were exactly three of each sex in the tank. So when the female died in the other room, the male died in the main tank as well… dunno for sure but I‘m done with this project it really is difficult and I‘m not skilled enough.

So now to find a good use for my tiny 10l tank.

I’m trying this now. Going to start cycling a 1.5gallon saltwater today. I’ve heard that the female shrimp don’t do well when moved into an unfiltered tank. Do you think that might have something to do with her death? Also I like the mesh idea and will be trying that.

 

I’m trying this now. Going to start cycling a 1.5gallon saltwater today. I’ve heard that the female shrimp don’t do well when moved into an unfiltered tank. Do you think that might have something to do with her death? Also I like the mesh idea and will be trying that.

Hi Darionajanuary, I think she died from the stress of being moved around too many times in different containers. My husband called what i did ‘torture’ … Good luck with your project, I hope it works out, and please share I’d be happy to see the outcomes