Breeding Journal, Species: Lysmata boggessi

General
Species:   Lysmata boggessi  
Social Structure:  5 individuals together. 
Size of Individuals:  2 x 1.5", 3 x 2"
Age of Individuals:  unknown (over 6 months)
Date added to Tank:  December 28th, 2012

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  20g tall with 5g DIY sump
Substrate Details:  none- bare bottom tank....
Filtration Details:  sock filter, & poly floss. 
Water Changes:  1-2 times a month
Water Temperature:  80 
Lighting:  MarineLand Reef capable LED fixture
Lighting Cycle:  on at 10am, off at 8pm (switch to moonlights for 1 hour, before and after main whites go off/on)
Other Tank Inhabitants: 
Ocellaris clown pair, single female Banggai cardinal fish.
Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  DIY mash, NLS pellets, and anything else I can scrounge up. 
Feeding Schedule:  constnatly... at minimum twice dailey. 

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:   07/17/2013
Spawn Time of Day:  evening, this is just after a molt was found in the tank....
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 7/18 and 7/19 (other pairs in tank are included in this)
Courtship Details:  overnight, not witnessed.  However the post spawning behavior: Female stays hunkered down under rocks, only coming out to grab food and a quick retreat. Male's do the same thing just tend to linger a bit longer, a bit bolder in my opinion. As she nears release date the females always tend to take on a more 'frantic' bold swimming pattern. Boldly swimming and climbing walls and rocks in wide open. 
Egg Size:  pin head
Egg Color:  green to silvery pink color
Egg Count:  100+ (Egg's are firmly packed and held up under the swimmerets of the female. Usually lasting no more than 10 days. They begin to look more silvery as they near the 10 day mark. Female's have a notably harder time holding them)

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:   7/24/2013
Hatch Time of Day:  3am (only noticed, because the Banggai was feasting!) 
# Days after Spawn:  10
Larvae Description:  planktonic small shrimp, closely resembling the parents. 


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  80
Size of Larval Tank:  2L soda bottle within the 20g broodstock system . 
Substrate Details:  bare bottom
Other Tank Decor:  only a bubbler! 
Filtration Details:  only a bubbler! 
Lighting:  ambient from kitchen and broodstock light above them! 
Lighting Cycle:  ambient, but close to 6 hour time schedule! 
Water Changes:  water exchange through a sieve...ever other day, POST 5 days hatch if possible. 

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  L type rotifers, NHBBS, 
Feeding Schedule:  constantly 

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: 



You will be required to provide photographic evidence in this thread of each event submitted for the MBI Program.
If your thread does not contain these photos the MBI Committee will not be able to approve your reports.

 

 

 

Ok, well this was the first spawn and egg release that I decided to keep from this tank! thought I'd jump into the invert side of things. They spawn regularly... every 10 days per pair, but they are off set by 2 days. So 2 days before a hatch I can usually see another pair spawn and or shed appear. 
 

geeze, I've been falling behind... lol. I just had the second batch hatch last night and the I don't even have the first batch uploaded on here! lol.... ok... seriously I will get the baby photo's up! lol.  
 
 

Ok, little one has eaten one of the peppermints so we are down a crew member. (teaches me not to put them in a bucket AT GROUND LEVEL!!!!)... one day she will help with water changes and it'll all be worth it! lol
 

 

Current female on the far left is the one who released this first batch... 
 

Alright, well although I had a vossel snagger set up and ready to roll, it took to long for the larvae to get to the mouth of the vessel before my fish started feasting so, I ended up just snagging them with a net and putting them in the two litter bottle (their kriesel until settlement...unless I can come up with something better?) 
 
Here is a shot of what it looks like (I was in the middle of snagging them when I took this shot) sorry for the mess!!!
 

close up:

 
shot down into the 2L container...  
 

taken through the microscope on a 10x lense through camera at full zoom...  these aren't even 1hr old yet. 
 

 

Nice pics. And your daughter is developing expensive eating habits! At least she hasn't tried something like filet of black tang!

yeah, that 'extra' protein sure is costly... good thing I'm breeding them, eh? lol... 
 
 

Ok those were all from Batch #01- 7/15 spawn & 7/25 hatch... 
 
Here is spawn #02 on the right side... these are from spawn 7/17 & hatch 7/27. 
 

 
 
SERIOUSLY DON'T EVER WANT TO DO THE FLAT SIDE OF A 2L AGAIN!!!! HIGH HIGH HIGH MORTALITY RATE.....DUE TO SETTLING! I would guess that I only have about 30% remaining at a week old, verses the top side down bottle set up is doing remarkably well at this age. Will continue to watch progress. ** could also be difference in air stones though. I am noticing that the larger bubbles really 'toss' these guys about... while the finer grit air stone on the right has much smaller bubbles and creates a much more uniform circular flow pattern in the 2L vessel. 

pardon the poor husbandry! lol....  I just noticed all that cyano!!! YUCK!!!! lol... but I was having shrimp babies and didn't want to mess with it. Good thing water changes are due on this tank tonight!  
 

Ok, well I took the 1st batch and witched them to a new bottle (with cap down) but still don't have a finer air stone (waiting for it to arrive) ... I can only see a couple still alive in this batch. They are truly getting knocked around and beaten up in there, I doubt this batch will make it...  
 
At least batch # 02 is still going, numbers decreased but still plenty in there!  
 
 

well, shoot buckets! ok, well, both batched down. Longest one made it until august 9th... not even 2 weeks! argh... 13dph is not getting me any points here! lol... well, I'm waiting on another hatch to try again! Currently 3 pregnant females...maybe only try one batch at a time? really observe what's going on? For sure this time I have my finer air stones (finally came in today!), and I am researching some better kreisel designs... would really like to see these guys work out... a new challenge for sure. 
 
Hoping for better odds next time.  

final pictures just before death...  
 

 
 

 
 
 

I would maybe try collecting them with something other than a net. I would think a net would be pretty rough on the larvae. What density of bbs have you been feeding?

Well I collect them in a super fine brine net... I put my own mesh on this one, they do well... but maybe your right, I can try and 'scoop' them... I'm always trying to beat the dang fish though...they always eat 50% or more of a batch just because their in the same tank! lol.
 
I hatch out 1-1.5 tsp of brine a day and split between my mysids, current babies, and peppermints larvae... so... they typically get quite a few.... not sure of the density in numbers though... got a good way to count... lol?
 

Well that sucks! One of my females was due to release soon when I did a water change and scrubed and rearranged the rock in the tank. I put everything back in but not quite back in its same place. Guess this really pissed the clowns off. They went absolutely psycho on everything in the tank. Picked on my Banggai's, and the peppermints that are all in there. Didn't eat just mauled 2 peppermints and took out my banggai's thread top fin. But they have calmed down now. crazy! 
 
Well, I went ahead and dissected the dead female, and stripped her eggs out of her and have put them in the wine glass tumbler. I have no clue if this will work, but I sure as heck wasn't going to let those clowns get the satisfaction of eating them!  
 
I'll throw pictures up soon! 
 

Well that sucks! One of my females was due to release soon when I did a water change and scrubed and rearranged the rock in the tank. I put everything back in but not quite back in its same place. Guess this really pissed the clowns off. They went absolutely psycho on everything in the tank. Picked on my Banggai's, and the peppermints that are all in there. Didn't eat just mauled 2 peppermints and took out my banggai's thread top fin. But they have calmed down now. crazy! 
 
Well, I went ahead and dissected the dead female, and stripped her eggs out of her and have put them in the wine glass tumbler. I have no clue if this will work, but I sure as heck wasn't going to let those clowns get the satisfaction of eating them!  
 
I'll throw pictures up soon! 
 

[video][/video]
 
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10151850143916323" width="1280" height="724" frameborder="0"></iframe>

 

 

 

I don't think I've ever read of anyone hatching shrimp eggs in a tumbler. I'll be watching. Good luck with this! The eggs certainly look healthy in those close up pics.

ok the eggs have officially been in the tumbler for 46 hours... still vibrant orange and looking viable, although they have begun to 'clump' together in small groups, but otherwise no change. A few eggs have escaped the confines of the tumbler and have settled on top of the mesh. Have not been eaten by fish or shrimp are still vibrant yellow, but are sitting in detritus and Lord only knows what else... they are being heavily forged on by all sorts of critters en mass!
 

 

 

 

 
Clumping shown in this photo, still in several small clumps.  
 

 
 
Here is where the eggs have settled that are being feasted on. 
 

Crazy attempt with the tumbler!  Very interesting.

yeah thanks matt, unfortunately all the research I did couldn't ever come up with a way to 'induce' hatch... the mother has a particular hormone that i just couldn't get recreated. the night they were due to hatch, nothing... they stayed viable for 3 or so days after hatching due date. But then nothing... until fungus came over half the nest, did a dip with the remaining...those lasted for another day then all turned white almost instantaneously... 
 
It was fun giving it a shot though. 
 

Ok, caught another batch on Nov. 2nd... giving this another try. This time I've put them into a 1g fish bowl (flat on two sides) to mock the kriesel circular motion...let's see if this will be any more successful! 
 
Feeding brine, little bit of parvo (b/c I was breaking down a bucket anyway...) live tetra and live t.iso VERY lightly tinted. Making a point to siphon everyday and replace with broodstock water. We'll see! 

Snagged a quick photo of one of the larvae. 9 days old currently. 
 

Chugging along!  How many do you think you have at this point?

ha ha thanks shannpeach... only about a dozen or so are left... maybe more, they all like to huddle in the corners so getting an accurate number is tough unless I set out to deliberately count them. lol.... I always seem to have a big die off around day 10 though. Usually it's the entire batch, but this time it was just about half of them... still maybe I'm missing a critical nutrient? I am not entirely sure. ?? what are you feeding them around this point?

I only fed mine nhbbs and some golden pearls every once in awhile. They really liked the golden pearls. I would use the GP if I didn't have enough bbs available. Have you tried using new ASW for the water changes instead of broodstock?

The other thing I did a little different...the phyto tinting. You say you use just a little to keep it lightly tinted whereas I kept mine at more of a "medium" tint (I know...really getting technical here lol)

mmm. no I've only been using broodstock water... I can try the ASW though. I need to siphon and change water tonight, so I'll try doing that. As far as tinting a bit more... the water tends to get pretty mucky really quickly. Do the shrimp actually ingest the algae? along with the nhbbs? because the nhbbs can't actually eat this yet... just wondering why we green this water up... I've added the algae only to feed the parvo but I don't normally have parvo in there. 

I mainly add it for water quality control purposes.  Plus, if any of the brine escape immediate predation they are enriched for when the time comes that they are captured and eaten.  I would imagine the pepp larvae do ingest some phyto, but more on accident than intentionally.  

and are you doing live as well, or offering something else?
 

Live phyto?  Yep  

yeah that's what I thought... well we'll see... they are all still alive today. So, I can't be doing everything wrong. lol. 

Getting to big for the scope pictures! Good problem to have! 
 

 

 
Here's one with a broken spear...