Breeding Journal, Species: Lysmata boggessi (Peppermint Shrimp)

General
Species:  Lysmata boggessi
Social Structure:  Trio
Size of Individuals:  1.5 - 2"
Age of Individuals:  Unknown
Date added to Tank:  12/10

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  58 gallon
Substrate Details:  sugar sand - 6+ inches deep
Filtration Details:  Live rock, sump, protein skimmer
Water Changes:  30% monthly
Water Temperature:  76.7
Lighting:  T5 HO 6 bulb

Lighting Cycle:  13 hour light/11 dark (blue LED)
Other Tank Inhabitants:  pair common clowns, Hippo tang, yellow tang, 3 banggai cardinals, green chormis, gramma, orchid dottiback, 3 pepermint shrip, hermits and snails, and corals

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  frozen and dry, variety of foods offered
Feeding Schedule:  2 to 4 times per day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  Unknown (detected eggs on 2 females on 1/1/11)
Spawn Time of Day:  Unknown
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  2/14/11
Courtship Details:  unknown
Egg Size:  <1mm
Egg Color:  yellow-orange
Egg Count:  hundreds

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  1/5/11
Hatch Time of Day:  Over night
# Days after Spawn:  14 - 17 days
Larvae Description:  Look like mini dandiliion seeds without magnification.  With magnification (10X), they look like mini adults with eye stalks that are redish colored and a clear body.  By this evening they developed some white cross-sectional strips.


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  74 at hatch, raised to 80 F
Size of Larval Tank:  15 gallon black stock tank
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  one small piece of live rock
Filtration Details:  air stone only
Lighting:  6500K CFL (100 watt equivalent)
Lighting Cycle:  on at 6 am off at 11 pm
Water Changes:  none so far

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  ground high-quality marine flake food
Feeding Schedule:  4 times per day

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 
Days after Hatch: 
Date of Settlement End: 
Description of Fry: 

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature: 
Size of Grow-Out Tank: 
Substrate Details: 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details: 
Lighting: 
Lighting Cycle: 
Water Changes: 
Size at Transfer: 
Age at Transfer: 

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types: 
Feeding Schedule: 

Additional Information
Miscellaneous Information: 



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Moved the 2 females to a 10 gallon hatching tank with lots of macroalgaes in it.  It's easier to observe the females this way as their eggs develop.

Looking forward to seeing your hatch success - good luck!

GREAT NEWS!  The 2nd female has hatched her eggs.  The hatching tank is full of what looks like miniature dandilion seed (fuzzies) floating on the currents from the air stone.  Feed them crushed flake food (we'll see how they do on that).  I could tell last night that the female would probably hatch her eggs last night, as the eggs on her swimmeretts looked a little untidy and fuzzy in appearance.  Today she has no eggs and was returned to the spawning tank.  She has not yet molted.  Earlier in the week the 1st female molted in the spawning tank, but no young were found (probably got sucked into the filter).  Will update with Pics later!

Here are some pictures from earlier today (estimated age 8 to 10 hours post-hatch)

 

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Hey, I just noticed, you're keeping your journal in two places? Dude, that is above and beyond when it comes to "sharing your experiences" Very cool!

[link=tm.aspx?m=47816]http://www.tcmas.org/v4/forums/showthread.php?t=33281[/link]

I thought the 15 gallon stock tank might work better. More surface area so the pleagic young can drift further without hitting the sides. Plus the shape is an oval (no corners at all). Unfortunately I had a mass die off over night. Ammonia was way too high! I'm trying to save what's left by vacuming the bottom of food, and doing a major water change. The problem with vac'ing the bottom is that it sucks up shrimp as well. Found about 2 dozen in the waste bucket (rescued with a table spoon from the top water). I used a PVC rotifer screen to prescreen the water from the tank. Set the rotifer screen in the bottom of the tank, put the shiphon tube in side the screen and sucked the water out from the inside of the screen. Going to change out 8 gallons with fresh water on a drip in to the tank. I also put more live rock into the bottom of the 15 gallon growout tank to see if maybe that will get a biofilter going. The female that hatched these young molted today, so if she breeds again, I will be better prepared for those young.

None of the little buggers made it past day 3.  I think I know what went wrong, and next time I'm going to be ready for them!  I should have more in about 2 weeks.

What do you think happened?

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

There was no biological filtration in the tank, and ammonia when off the scale (> 5 ppm).  With a very large water change, the ammonia was lowered to 1-2 ppm.  The live rock caused the formation of nitrites up to 2 ppm along with the ammonia, this was just too stressfull on the newly hatched shrimp.  This and my brine shrimp cysts failed to hatch out.  I'm going to leave this tank set up as is with the snails, tigger pods and cyclops like pods I have to increase in population density.  If eggs form again, I'll be ready for the newly hatched shrimp.