Breeding Journal, Species: Lysmata boggessi

General
Species:  Lysmata boggessi
Social Structure:  Pair/ Group of 7
Size of Individuals:  ~2 inches
Age of Individuals:  Unknown
Date added to Tank:  April 23, 2013/ September 14, 2013

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  10 gallon
Substrate Details:  None, few tubes of pvc and a rock the shrimp like to sit on for feeding
Filtration Details:  40g sump, biological
Water Changes:  10% monthly
Water Temperature:  78.8°F /~80°F
Lighting: Lights of America 18" Under-Cabinet Fluorescent Light
Lighting Cycle:  16 Hours on, 8 Hours off
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Pair of Elacatinus evelynae /Pair of Orange stripe cardinalfish

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Frozen Cyclopeeze, Frozen Mysis, Flakes
Feeding Schedule:  3 times a day, Once in the morning and night with a mix of cyclopeeze and mysis, flakes towards noonish.

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  11 June 2013 /16 September 2013
Spawn Time of Day:  From 10:00pm to 5:00am 
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 
Courtship Details:  None seen, Molts evedent
Egg Size:  Less than 1/2 a mm
Egg Color:  Very light green
Egg Count:  50-75

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  6 October, 2013
Hatch Time of Day:  9-10pm
# Days after Spawn:  17 days
Larvae Description:  Enlongated, have eyes that are attached together, Z1 stage in life


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  78°F
Size of Larval Tank:  1g fish bowl
Substrate Details:  none
Other Tank Decor:  Air bubbler, heater
Filtration Details:  none
Lighting:  CFB (Compact flouresent)
Lighting Cycle:  24 hours
Water Changes:  50% every few days

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Tisbe nauplii, iso, tetraselmis, BBS added few days after hatch (see below), and flake food
Feeding Schedule:  continuous 

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
(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 



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If your thread does not contain these photos the MBI Committee will not be able to approve your reports.

iPhone photo of the pregnent shrimp:
 

Here is a better picture of the pregnant shrimp:

 
Also I just found the empty shell when it molted, more evidence that this is a true spawn.

So far its day 1 after sighting and she is still holding onto the eggs. Haven't seen any more molts as of yet either. 

It's been around 2-3 spawns since it started. I can't figure out why I'm not catching the larvae. Could it be that the input for the drainage system in the tank is close by the vossen collector?

Sadly, one of the two shrimp that was holding eggs died today, for no apparent reason, all level were good, etc. So I will start this again with the other shrimp plus 4-5 more into a new 10g tank.

Time to revive an old thread! Just picked up 6 new shrimp Saturday, which means a new total of 7 Shrimp! Found two pregnant this morning, so I moved one of them, just to see what this does, to a 10g setup next to it and isolated it. I plan on removing the shrimp immediately after hatch so that I can get some fry this time! Also, this 10g is a barebottom hooked into my breeding setup. Here is a pic of the preggers adult:

Well, BIG NEWS!!! So around 2 to 3 weeks ago I decided to put another shrimp in isolation, and see what happens. Tonight I had a "Feeling" like as though I should go into the fish room. And low and behold a hatch! Around 50 - 100 or so hatched and I managed to catch around 90%
 
Close up video of one of the larvae
 

Also, I shall be attempting tisbe nauplii with them, because I was not prepared for the hatch quite yet and still need to get my hands on some rots locally

Here is another video and some pics of the larvae swimming around, you can see the two pairs of antennae and the eyes locked together that one usually sees in the Z1 stage:
 

I wouldn't bother with the rots, and would focus on feeding bbs.  If you don't have any ready you can even feed crushed flake or a floating pellets (Golden pearls work really well and the larvae seem to really like them) as a substitute in the meantime

Thanks shannpeach, put a few flakes in the beginning till it hatched. It so far is doing GREAT! I shut off the light yesterday, I think I will start doing the normal light cycle right about now (5-9or10ish), tuned the light on just now and they hit Z2!! Around 40-50% is left I want to say, but I don't think I truly started out with too many as well.


Also, one thing I probably messed up on that will get me later on is that I put in a tad too much NHBBS, to a density of around 12-15 bbs per larvae... I'll try and not do as many next batch, which will come in a few days hopefully.

Also, I am conducting an experiment as to see what these lil guys will actually eat. What I do, is I isolate one or two of them, and put them in a petri dish. Then I add the food I want to test, and see if they actually eat it. I did a control with some Z2 larvae that were in a petri dish since Z1, and put some bbs in there and I saw both of them strike at it, so it seems to me like this experiment will work, Will Update With The Results Soon

Meh, well plan failed, was a mix of tisbe and triggerpods in the dish, didn't even give them a taste bite, oh well! Back to the BBS it is!

You could try again when they are a bit bigger.

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

That was my plan, I'm thinking around the Z3 or Z4 stage I would try again and see if that helps.

Well, sad news today I lost around 95% of the larvae last night, only 4 remain now. Not sure why, could be they were trying to go to Z3 one day early and died or something. Hopefully these four make it to Monday.

Well, long enough time for an update, not too big however. Lost the rest of the larvae, but I just received one of Chad's larval collector in the mail the other day so I will put it in tonight or tommorow and keep trying. I'm going to Florida over Christmas so my neighbor will be taking care of any larvae that are left... hopefully flakes should be enough for them. Still have all the adults and they are preggers ALL THE TIME, just school has gotten in the way recently but after New Years things should die down finally (not the shrimp lol).

Update time yet again! Took me a few tries, but I got a big batch of fry last night. One thing I did poorly on my part was I had the airflow set to max, so I'm not sure how these larvae will do. I think I'm going to do is run the copepod test again, this time with a big batch of fry, and around 50% of the pods being nauplii. If all goes well, I should not have to touch the container for almost any reason until they run outta pods IF they even do. Also, I put in isochrysis and my "un-identified/currently-working-on-identifying-it-with-Jim's-help-which-may-be-Tetraselmis" algae, so hopefully I have enough. I won't snag a pic of this batch, due to my expectancy of not many making it through this trail. The airflow could also be a very big factor into why these guys may not be surviving long, so I limited the vossen to a few bubbles per second instead of a whole crud load. 

I  was surprised yesterday, I already had two larvae at the Z2 stage! Not sure how they are doing this morning, but I assume most of them should be in that stage.

Unexpected turn of events, so I lost 100% of the larvae overnight in the fish bowl, but the 5 other larvae that I left in the Vossen are still alive.... I think I was putting i waaay too much algae, and also I think the fact of how the pods in the sump (which are the same species fyi) are being sent up, including nauplii, the nauplii goes into the tank, gets attracted to the light of the vossen, gets sent in, an dthen the larvae have food. I'm not 100% sure on that, since it is speculation, but it is the only reason I can think of for them to be alive with the bowl batch not being alive