Amano Shrimp Larvae Growth Progress - Updated

I was able to collect some recently hatched larvae that were bigger than previous ones I've collected. I was able to actually see their tiny legs flail w/ my naked eye! Not sure if I can raise these since the tank is still barely growing algae.

Since people seem to lose their batch early on, I decided to experiment by observing if amano shrimp larvae are capable or if they eat right after hatching.

Unfortunately, they don't seem to be interested in the liquid zooplankton or crushed flakes.

 

They didn't survive, I made a rookie mistake and didn't check the salinity which I thought was within but turns out it hit the max of what my hydrometer could read. I corrected that and collected whatever small amount of larvae I saw today.

Anyway, this is from the successful batch I had in August earlier this year. I used my iPhone with a macro lens clip on so excuse the quality and shakiness. From more successful batches, I'll be able to get a better idea to compare their growth stages, it seems the ones I took more recently had develop growth that wasn't seen in my successful batch. So maybe they were not growing properly.

This vid below is what a settled larvae looks like, it's a miniature version of the adult but you can see it still has the tiny legs when they were larvae, they will eventually lose that with their next molt.

This is the last stage before they settled into miniature adult versions. They are mobile and not fast or as dependent on light as they were in earlier stages. They can swim forward by now and easy to catch. Around the 1:30 mark you can see from a wider shot of them in the tank, they're just hanging out on the bottom.

 

This is really cool!

 

This whole thread is something new and special to a lot of us you're giving us an insight to something people wouldn't believe unless it was on camera,

 

Man I feel like I'm in Marine Bio in high school again. Thanks again for sharing this super cool journey with us.

 

Yeah! Like richie.p said, I had no idea they went through all these stages! I knew they couldn't reproduce in fresh water but I did not know they had such an exciting childhood.

 

Gotta get use out of all the technology I bought and glad, you're enjoying them.

The reason behind it is also to show how even the tiniest of creatures is a complex marvel like us and our bodies that we should be in awe of instead of taking things for granted and oversimplifying how things in nature work because you don't see it.

 

Great thread, and thanks for all the pics and info!!
I'm in the early stages of this adventure, first time around and I'm just trying to anticipate problems at this point.
mach6 Can you please tell a bit more about a few things (other readers please chime in if you have knowledge/suggestions!!):

• It looks like container sizes are quite small. Airstone and light, but no heater, right? Same size for 1 'pregnant' mama, as for all the babies after hatching?
  
• My basement probably stays at 65-70F, will that be okay for mama and babes?
• Do you remove the mama as soon as eggs are released, then salt the water? Or do you siphon out the babies from the container they're born in, and place in waiting salt water?
• How often do you change the salt water? How much at a time? Your linked vid looks like it uses a mini-siphon or syringe the water out, while 'luring' the larvae to a safe area, away from the tube. Is that about right?

Thanks so much for any input!!

 

First and foremost, if your grow out tank is sterile and devoid of algae, the larvae will starve. I've re-did my grow out tank with another one and found that none was surviving until a significant amount was present on the sides and possibly water column, that took more than 2 weeks surprisingly of 24 hour lighting. A video on YT by Chappy says they can survive with algae being grown when you put it in a sterile container. That doesn't seem to be my experience so best to ensure you got a food supply for them. The attached pic is what a ready looking tank should be like. Right now that tank has about 30~ larvae I've collected over the last week and still survived a few days.

The water isn't cloudy so one can assume they're feeding on the algae on the sides, I did brush the algae off to get more free floating. It doesn't hurt they can feed in the water column too. You can try to grow out algae by taking S/W from an establish tank and adding some microalgae fertilizer or something to spur the growth quicker. I did add some DT's phytoplankton from the successful batch but I've lost that culture by not refrigerating the bottle I kept and it went foul. I didn't want to buy another bottle for this batch to see if I really need to spend $13+ on it. However if I do, I will pick up Phycopure because it contains larger microalgae like diatoms that the DT one didn't have.

The grow out tank now is an Aqueon 1.6 but I've used a Tetra half moon too, both are about 1.5~ gallons. I mix the salinity to 1.024 or as close as you can keep in that range on your hydrometer. Salt doesn't seem to matter, just get the cheapest that can be used for marine fish tanks. I've used IO and Red Sea regular, the Red Sea seems to leave a residue so I'll be going to back to Instant Ocean when that's done. I'm going to pick up Dr Foster's salt since I read it dissolves clear. You should also have some aged saltwater always ready in a 5 gallon bucket and make more when you use it all. Typically, I don't change the water unless it becomes too cloudy with algae where I can't see them. I will try to grow them w/o feeding since I was able to do it w/o supplemental feeding which just adds more things that can go wrong and i'm not experienced enough with successfully raising them to try supplemental yet.

MiniCube LED Kit - Aquarium Starter Kits | Aqueon Aquarium Products



I heat my tank for the pregnant Amanos and grow out tanks since a higher temp means higher metabolism to grow faster than a non-heated tank. I use a betta heater that keeps it around 70~F. I just started with using a heater since it's winter here and the water drops to 60s which they will survive in but grow slower. The main tank where the males and females are put back into is not heated. The successful batch was during the summer and no heater was necessary. It looks like the larvae I'm collecting is much larger in a heated tank vs unheated. It definitely helps they have a good head start.

I isolate my pregnant Amanos in a filtered 5 gallon tank, I have tried many times w/o success to put them into containers with no filtration with frequent w/c. The eggs would always turn orange or the shrimp expel it too early and even shrimp themselves get it. Putting them back into the main tank that was filtered cured the shrimp with the fungus so I added small intank filter. The main tank is a 10 gallon filtered and unheated.

I use a 5 ml to suck out the larvae if they are free floating to transfer them to the grow out tank. The eggs are put into a container because the mother expelled the eggs and I try save them from the tank and get some to hatch. You can drop them into S/W right away there is no acclimation needed for the larvae stage only after they settled. I return the pregnant to the main tank once I noticed all the eggs or most of the eggs are gone. They are attracted to light so use a strong light source and they will swim to it then you can easily suck them out with a siphon from airline tubing or a pipette.

One thing I will experiment with is to see if 24hr lighting is necessary because nature has a light cycle and to save some cost on energy. I've lost some when I accidentally shut off switch to the light and forgot to turn it back on. I'm thinking that was due to a sterile tank more than anything, later on when they're bigger and capable of swimming a bit they don't really swim to the light like the early stages.

 

I noticed from my last success that there was an abundant of these tiny creatures moving on the algae. I didn't pay much attention to but I did save the old tank water for the new grow out tank to speed up the algae growth. In the beginning, I noticed these things weren't as plentiful and now they're literally everywhere where there is a thick patch of algae growing. It looks like they are a few larger varieties that I don't see in my older videos. I have used water from established saltwater tanks so they could be from there.

Since they are very tiny, it's hard to see if you have any without some magnification.

You can see a comparison in size to the larvae that shows up and at the 12 second mark the larvae is giving a dazzling performance, funny how nature has way to surprise you... At the 50 mark its magnified more and I sped up the video and you can see them move.

Assuming nothing goes wrong, we'll see if the current larvae survives all the way through.

 

Awesomely useful info mach6 !! Thanks!
So the recent vids is your grow-out tank, yes? And all that algae is in saltwater?
These are 1.5g?
Thx!!

 

Yes, this is my current setup using an Aqueon 1.6G. I think the Aqueon is a better buy now that I think about it because it comes with a filter and more powerful lights than the Tetra halfmoon weak LEDs and no filter for a few bucks more.

The power plug is non-standard and splits to 2 connectors to power the light and filter. I don't use either on this tank but I'm using the filter for a small pico Saltwater tank.

It is saltwater, the salinity may vary some but I try to keep it as close to 1.024~ with a variances of .002 or so. It doesn't have to be exact but within this range of what most hydrometers consider S/W.

 

So the basic things needed are:
Two cycled tanks (one saltwater)
Heaters
Filters
Air stone and pump
Hydrometer
Light
Several Amano shrimp

That cover the basic needs?

 

A refractometer would be better than a hydrometer since they tend to be more accurate, and from what I've heard, you may want to pick up some phytoplankton as well, and maybe some golden pearls.

 

I'm embarking on this journey as we speak (type), and I have a jar of 1 week old larvae going.
The "tanks" for the larvae don't need to be cycled. Just an airstone, and occasional water changes.
I've read that brewers yeast is an acceptable food for the first few days, and it seems to be working okay for me.
My larvae are in a ±1L jar at the moment, I'm looking for an appropriate jar in the 1-2 gal range.
My basement is a bit chilly for decent growth, so my larva jar is in a 5gal water bath tank (this will allow me to add jars as I go, if needed).
Agree with Rtessy that refractometer is better, I picked on up shortly after getting set up and it's WAAAAYYYY better than hydrometer. Mainly because it uses just a couple drops to test water, and is faster (can't house my hydrometer in my larva jar, and I always have to fight with air bubbles if using it on demand). It also makes it much easier to test water from multiple sources (larva jar and reserved saltwater). This would also be a good project to buy prepared salt water for (if you can get it), since you need so little of it.
I don't keep a separate tank for adults to breed in, but I pull berried shrimp from my other tanks when I think they're getting close to releasing eggs. I house them in a ±1.5gal jar with a small sponge filter, heater, plant cuttings, and an almond leaf.
I'm putting a lot of light-hours over the larva jar, hoping to get some algae going soon. I suspect that'll be my biggest issue, if I don't sort it out soon.

 

Pics or it didn’t happen

 

It seems the larvae can survive hyper-salinity since it was a good amount above the S/W range on the hydrometer and that if there's food source available they can survive on a light schedule since I accidentally shut it off and forgot to turn it on again. Someone gave me a refractometer but I never used it but I will look for it not knowing it doesn't require much water to sample.

Most important is having a tank with food source in the water column. You can buy some off shelf phyto and add it or try growing it on tank or both. A heater isn't necessary only if it's cold to maintain a faster growth rate. If you're using a heater, keep an eye on the water evaporation. I don't use air stones, the other end is the rigid plastic tubing. Filter is optional, my local water is probably the reason why I need to use.

I've talked to someone who has made it to the end but they all died during the transition. Luckily I didn't have that problem the first time.

Here's what my current batch looks like, turning red is a good sign of them feeding on the algae and being active.

 

HI mach6, how are the 'kids' doing?
My 1st attempt is still going well (larvae @ 10d), I'm trying to get as much info as I can on this adventure, to maybe anticipate problems/hurdles before they occur.
So I re-read this thread from the beginning, to understand more of the context of your awesome videos.
I was going to ask how old your larvae are, but it seems you're collecting as they come, and removing as they morph, is that about right? So your salty tank has a range of larvae sizes/ages?
And if that's the case (ie if I'm understanding and assuming correctly ), how do you catch the shrimplets after they morph without disturbing the larvae?
The youtube vid you shared early on showed the guy doing a fairly quick acclimation from Saltwater to Freshwater right after metamorphosis (if I'm understanding that right). Is that how you do it?
Thanks again! Hopefully if I continue to have success, I'll post my pics in a new thread. At this stage, I don't want to start a thread with a sad ending.

 

They all died, the salinity climbed too high from the water evaporating and even killed off a good amount of those smaller creatures on the glass when I inspected it with my camera to see if it was still salvageable. I'm going back to the original tank that has a cover on it to reduce evap and may not heat it.

I have been busy lately so I'm not going to try again until I buy a bottle of live phyto to culture. I also picked up some bamboo shrimps. I have about 9-10 females that I rotate between the tanks when I see they are berried. There's always some larvae present in the water that I'll just suck up when I see them. I have 2 really large females that I've been hoping would berry but they don't as frequently as the others.

To catch them after they settled, I used a 5ml pippette and with my quick dexterity I am able to suck them in. Some took me a few minutes because they're so small and fast and the water was cloudy. That batch had 20 but if they are all around the same stage the other may be hanging near the bottom of the tank.

The first transition is 50/50 Saltwater to Freshwater in a small container that I usually leave overnight. You're trying to simulate them swimming back up river. I asked him for the timing of the transition and he wasn't specific but this is what I did. Then the next transition is removing 50% and top off with FW, but I don't recall how long I left it, maybe 4+ hours to be safe and if it has survived you should be able to put it in your Freshwater tank.

I had someone message me from another forum and his batch all died during the Freshwater transitioning. I had a 95% success rate out of 20. One died from a short transition where I tried to see if it can survive Freshwater right away and the answer is no, it will die.

Good luck to you!

 

How do you tell male Amano from a female?

 

That is all super info, and thank you so much for the careful, thorough and detailed write-up. I’m a details person myself, so it’s appreciated.
I’m finding the salinity to be relatively easy to manage (can’t say enough good things about refractometer), and although I did start with sterile saltwater, I’ve seeded it lightly with all sorts of green goodies, bits of java moss (dead in salt water I imagine), some marine moss from a frag tank at lfs, etc. I first started feeding tiny amounts of brewers yeast, and have added crushed spirulina flake, and just started using drops of Seachem reef phytoplankton. They seem much more active over the 2 days since using the phyto.
Thanks again, so much!!!

 

For me, I just look for eggs and transfer it.

The markings determine, the male has dots while the females has broken lines and much bigger.

The pic came from this article

 

That is all super info, and thank you so much for the careful, thorough and detailed write-up. I’m a details person myself, so it’s appreciated.
I’m finding the salinity to be relatively easy to manage (can’t say enough good things about refractometer), and although I did start with sterile saltwater, I’ve seeded it lightly with all sorts of green goodies, bits of java moss (dead in salt water I imagine), some marine moss from a frag tank at lfs, etc. I first started feeding tiny amounts of brewers yeast, and have added crushed spirulina flake, and just started using drops of Seachem reef phytoplankton. They seem much more active over the 2 days since using the phyto.
Thanks again, so much!!!

No problem, live algae will be better so you don't need to worry about the changing water and the quality going bad from using prepared liquid foods. When using liquid I feel you need to use a lot or they can still starve especially since most don't have a high bubble rate to have good water movement.

In the mean time, I have one of those sieve for artemia that i'm floating in a marina hang on breeder that I converted to refugium and putting in whatever is hatching now, I wonder if they will make it because that will make it even easier to raise. I did have to use prepared liquid phyto this time for it but its' attached to more water volume so that should be ok I hope.

 

When using liquid I feel you need to use a lot or they can still starve especially since most don't have a high bubble rate to have good water movement.

So, how much is enough, do you think? How many drops of phyto, how many times per day? For a batch of maybe 80 larvae, 2 weeks old? Not asking for science, just your opinion or gut feeling.

 

So, how much is enough, do you think? How many drops of phyto, how many times per day? For a batch of maybe 80 larvae, 2 weeks old? Not asking for science, just your opinion or gut feeling.

Hard to say, you'd be the best judge since you can see if there is any noticeable difference in size for the last 2 weeks.

How big is the tank? I would just target feed them as best as you can to avoid overdosing where all like to hang out near the light. I didn't use liquid foods enough to be able to give any advice.

If you kept them alive for 2 weeks then I'd say continue what you are doing, they should also be active too.

 

Collected some eggs last night and very much surprised to see that it was that many.

Probably one of the largest single hatch I ever had. Unfortunately, I don't know if I can raise them. I had a bucket that I was still cultivating some algae but didn't seem to be growing that dense.

 

Alright, it's warm enough to try raising these guys w/o a heater. Here's a video of their first 7~ days. Some morphed by their eyes coming out. It's less than 10 larvae but I'm just interested in recording it.

 

Weather is warmer to start this up again, feeding them daily seems to have produced more viable larva. Some of my F1 are already breeding size. I wanted to separate them to avoid mixing genetics.

If you want to breed Amanos buy them small so you can a good amount of breeding cycles with them.

The larger red ones were hatched around June 23rd. The newly hatched you see was a few days ago now. You can see the difference between them at various stages. At least 3 phases.

 

Glad your still active with this look forward to the next chapter

 

Yup, gotta finish documenting it.

Here's the same batch but from the side view in their grow out tank. at 6 minute mark one of them appears to be eating a part of another.

 

Couldn't see anything except at 6.14 a bit of bumping about, this lot seem to have a better colour or is it me there's also a bit of a difference in size are they the same batch

 

At 6 minute mark the bigger one on the left side rising up is the one eating part of another larva tail It's hard to make out if you're not aware of what you're looking at.

The first video is the shot with backlighting , the second one is shot while with light cast on them. Back lighting seems to not show the shiny pieces of them and gives it more of a xray effect.

 

I believe I can see what your talking about

 

After a long hiatus, I gave it another attempt to raise Amanos earlier this year. Found a seller selling large size ones on Reddit and decided to try it again seeing it was difficult to find them in the last year in a large size, still smaller than pre-pandemic sizes but largest I've seen in a while. I raised this smaller batch in an unheated 60~ degree 1 gallon tank and many died off but 3-4 was still alive for 30~ days, I transitioned them to another heated tank that had 10 day old larvae to see if it will survive and eventually morph. I fed them live phyto plankton and added rotifers within the last few days. Within a 10~ days that largest one settled. Once summer comes, I will not need to heat the tank.

This would be a second time at raising another to this stage. I still need to transition it to FW to complete it.

If this transition it would be my 2nd successful attempt. If more reach this stage I will also want to experiment with if they can survive in SW for an indefinite amount of time, with over 100+ catching each one that transition is challenging.

Amano Shrimp larvae settled

Here's a video I took a few hours before it settled, you can see the size difference between the newly hatched and the one that settled. It about 10x the size of a 1 day vs a 40 day.

 

Didn't know my iphone 13 macro settings was very good. Previous video was still using my iPhone 7 with macro lens. So far I have about 11 transitioned with about 60~? more still in the late stages or already settled.

Close up of a settled shrimp still in SW.

Also, don't mix new and late stage larvae, they will cannibalize them. They just grab and eat whatever they can catch. Very few of the new ones survived, I guess it helped the othe grow.

 

You can see the size difference between a newly hatched vs ones that's settling.