Breeding Journal, Species: Stenopus scutellatus (Gold banded coral shrimp)

General
Species:  Stenopus scutellatus
Social Structure:  Mated pair
Size of Individuals:  ~2 inches, perhaps slightly less
Age of Individuals:  Unknown, wild caught
Date added to Tank:  Early November 2013

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  5.5 gallon
Substrate Details:  None
Filtration Details:  Sponge filter
Water Changes:  As needed, not regular
Water Temperature:  ~80F
Lighting:  CFL clamp light
Lighting Cycle:  6 AM to 9 PM
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Four M. sculptus

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Hikari mysis, live enriched brine, nhbbs, frozen mash, pellets
Feeding Schedule:  Two or more times a day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  Before purchase, 11-24-13 was the first spawn after purchase 
Spawn Time of Day:  Around lights out, or after.  Female molted shortly before lights out
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  12-8-2013
Courtship Details:  None noted
Egg Size:  Not measured
Egg Color:  Green, turn to silvery white with noticeable eye spots a couple days before hatch
Egg Count:  Not counted

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  11-13-2013, 12-23-2013   
Hatch Time of Day:  After lights out
# Days after Spawn:  Usually ~15 days   
Larvae Description:  Small, clear, long rostrum and also have a weird pointy appendage coming off their back


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  ~80 F
Size of Larval Tank: 17 gallon BRT   
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  None
Filtration Details:  None (water changes and live phyto)
Lighting: Fluorescent strip light             
Lighting Cycle:  6 AM to 9 PM
Water Changes:  As needed  

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  nhbbs   
Feeding Schedule:  constant

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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Parents:

The female had TONS of eggs!
 
Day 4 larva:

Note the pointy thing on the back...anyone know what that thing is called?
 
Here is one chowing on a brine shrimp that is surprisingly large:

I keep phyto in the water so hopefully that artemia it's chowing on still has some nutritional value!
 
These things are SO much harder to see in the water compared to peppermint shrimp.  They are nearly clear and the easiest way to spot them are their eyes.  They are also quite tiny, about the size of hermit crab larvae (if I can remember the size of those correctly).  I didn't collect nearly as many of them as I wanted, and I am not even sure of how many I was really starting with, but here goes!

Yesterday, after days and days of not spotting any larvae, I decided to harvest the partially grown artemia from the bowl to feed to the juvie pipefish. I dumped the orb bowl into a bucket and then the bucket through a sieve. Then I spotted something on the sieve so I back washed into a bowl. There were still a few larvae left! The abuse they've taken! There were only five, but I bastered them out of the bowl and now have them set up in an inverted 3L bottle. I took some pictures and I will add them later.

A female of one of my pairs (the one that my current larvae came from) actually seems to be developing eggs. She has a greenish area developing that the male does not have.

The pair:

The male:

The female:


In the pictures, the area looks yellow, but in person it actually looks green.

Here are the day 10 larvae pics:




 
 

Little bit of an update.  On Sunday shortly before lights out, I found a molt in one of the broodstock tanks but wasn't sure which shrimp it came from (male or female).  Monday I suspected the female had eggs, but I didn't have a chance to look very closely.  Yesterday (11-26) I looked at her with a flashlight and sure enough, she is carrying a small batch of eggs (small compared to the whopping big egg batch she had when I bought her.  I am still working on finding some thing these guys will chow down on with gusto).  So it looks like there was a spawn Sunday evening.  I tried to get a decent pic of her with the eggs yesterday but wasn't very successful:

 
My iPhone camera got messed up so it is sometimes hard to get it to focus on the correct thing.  I will try to get a better pic in the next few days, but you can sort of see the small batch of eggs
 
The batch of larvae from the first hatch out of this pair is still going.  Well, at least there is one still alive.  I will have to do a water change on the 3L container soon and will get a better idea, but as of last night I saw at least one floating around. I think they are two weeks old or so at this point.
 

A slightly better pic

Must have missed the hatch, or the number of eggs dwindled to nothing.  I thought I saw a few left Sunday morning when I looked with a flashlight and swore I even saw eye spots, so I figured the hatch would be last night.  However, this morning I woke up to a freshly molted shrimp with a new batch of eggs and no larvae.  Perhaps the few that hatched were eaten.  I will probably put a snagger in for the next batch just in case.  This batch of eggs seems quite a bit larger from the quick peek I was able to take this morning.
 
This spawn was two weeks on the nose from the last one, so I at least know a tentative schedule for when to put the snagger in

It sounds like you are working very diligently with these.   I think you were really smart to purchase a pair from the LFS that were already breeding, this may have saved you months waiting for them to mature and pair up.  
 
Have you tried copepods with the new larvae?  Have you read April Kirkendoll's book on peppermint shrimp?  She found that flake food was a good food because the baby shrimp could find an appropriate sized morsel that didn't fight back when they attacked it.
 
If there is no downside to your snagger in the tank, you might have it run every night and just check the next day to see if you had a hatch or not.  Just an idea.  
 
 

I actually have two pairs, both of which were purchased as a "mated pair" and agree it is the easiest way to go.  I have not tried copepods but will likely add some during my next attempt.  I won't rely on them exclusively since bbs seem to work just fine for most inverts, but I am sure they won't hurt.
 
I have read Kirkendoll's book (a few times ) and have successfully raised peppermint shrimp.  The only thing about flake/inert foods is that other shrimp don't seem to take to it as well as peppermints and there is more uneaten food which equals faster water fouling.  I have several sizes of Golden Pearls which seemed to be enjoyed by the peppermint shrimp which I hope to also try a bit in my next attempt (which will be in a larger container, likely a BRT).
 
I wouldn't necessarily have to run a snagger every night now that I have a better idea of when to expect hatches.  The eggs change noticeably closer to hatch, so I will probably just run the snagger once I see that.  I do, however, have some crabs in there that I hope are breeding as well, so perhaps running the snagger all the time will be better.  I just have to get more/better light sources to really do it successfully on a regular basis instead of stealing the light from my other snagger which runs nightly in a different tank.

Got a pic of the new batch of eggs last night

 
Looks to be a good one!

The eggs hatched on December 23rd.  I got home around 1 in the morning (technically the 24th) and they were hatching.  It was annoying because only one or two would hatch at a time so it took FOREVER to collect them and sometime after 2 I decided I was done waiting and would just collect the rest in the morning...but when I got up at 5 to check, there weren't any!  So it looks like if I am going to collect these I have to use a collector or put her in the hatching chamber since the larvae get eaten in the small tank before morning.
 
I collected quite a few and put them in a heated BRT with nhbbs, iso and nanno.  I'm using an airstone near the side to move water.  
 
I took some day one pics since I didn't get any of those last time:

This one is eating something:


 
They are super hard to see because they are nearly colorless.  
 
There was also a spawn the same night and it looks to be a pretty nice size one again.

Pulled a couple for some day 7 pics yesterday.  Didn't see many still alive in there...  I think next time I am going to start them on rotifers in addition to nhbbs.
 





 
 

Couldn't find any more larvae from this batch yesterday, so I think this run is done.  I am thinking about a few things to do differently next time.

I used a larval snagger in the adult's tank and got a whopping number of larvae last night.  I had added a bunch of copepods into the snagger the night before, so they hopefully were able to have a snack while in there.  They are currently in a 3L inverted water bottle bubbling with rigid airline, in a heated water bath.  They were collected along with the copepods (Eut and Apo) that were in the snagger, and I also added rotifers and a few nhbbs.  I put in some nanno as well.  Tonight I will pour them out and decide if I want to divide them up into separate bottles to reduce the number of larvae in each container.  I am thinking that would be a good idea.  I considered putting them in a BRT, but I sort of like the bottles because I can do 100% water changes every day easier than I could with the BRT, plus keeping prey density high without dealing with too-large artemia is easier in the bottles.  
 
Also, as of 6:30 this morning, there was no new spawn.  Not sure why they didn't last night after the eggs were released.

They got a 100% water change today and have been separated out into two containers for a few days now. They have been fed rotifers, Apocyclops, Euterpina and some nhbbs. I've been adding phyto to the water as well. Today is day 5 and they are at Z2, noticeable even to the eye due to their eyes changing from being close to the head to being sort of googly.
 

Day 9 at they are at Z3 today (most notable by the change in the tail:





 
They got another 100% water change today.  I added in a decent amount of Euterpina copepods and also nhbbs and some iso/nanno to tint the water.

Did a 100% water change yesterday (day 13) for these and I have 30 left but they seem to be at Z4 most noticeable by the change in the tail.




 
 

100% water change last night with a zoeal stage check (I only look at them under the microscope every other water change, and water changes are done every other day, so I look at them every 4 days)
 
Judging by the new pair of legs on some of them, it would appear that Z5 is here at day 17!

 
 

Day 21 yesterday and they got a 100% water change.  I counted 25 or so :/
Some pics:






I can't say really if it is a new zoeal stage (hopefully Z6!) but I they are definitely bigger, judging by this photo taken on day 17 (Z5)

and this photo taken on day 21 

 
The older larvae definitely takes up more of the screen and they were taken at the same magnification.  I haven't been able to get any shots of the tail lately, which would be a bit more helpful.  They just don't lay on the slide right and I get too nervous that I will kill them if I try for too long.

Your picture quality is fantastic.  Has anyone raised these before so you know how long a larval stage to expect?

Thanks!  
 
These have been raised before.  There is one paper that has them settling once at day 45 or so from wild-spawned eggs, and the next attempt they settled at day 70+, IIRC. I think I have the full paper somewhere.
http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.elsevier-63a9b251-ecb8-31e5-a84a-326238d7c8d9
 
In the papers I have seen them reference success, they don't really go into stages, or how long at each stage.  If they settled at day 45, best case scenario, and spend about four days in a stage, then I should anticipate 10-12 stages which sounds about right.  There really isn't much out there for staging Stenopus sp. beyond Z5, and I have only seen one paper where they do Z1 through Z5.  So now I am in unknown territory.  I don't really know what to look for to determine if it is a new stage.  And the larvae are getting too large for my scope and also don't lay on their backs or stomachs anymore...they always flip to their sides.  So I can't really even get a decent pic of the tail, which I always find helpful for staging since it always seems to change slightly at each stage.  I think tomorrow's water change they should be "due" for a new larval stage if they are keeping to the schedule before, but I remember reading somewhere that at this point they also start to have multiple instars or something....oh boy lol

That is quite a discrepancy between 45 days and 70, although most broods have a lot of variability.  It would be interesting to see at what point you can get them onto frozen or flake food instead of brine shrimp.  Keep up the good pictures.

I have started adding in enriched bbs on occasion, but haven't done much with prepared foods yet.  Tomorrow morning I will probably try putting in some golden pearls since they will be getting a water change tomorrow evening.  They are in such a small volume of water that it makes me nervous to add too many inert food items that would foul the water more quickly.
 
Here is a link to the PDF (it worked for me, at least)
http://digitool.fcla.edu/view/action/singleViewer.do?dvs=1391102768941~875&locale=en_US&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/singleViewer.do?&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=7&adjacency=N&application=DIGITOOL-3&frameId=1&usePid1=true&usePid2=true
and a quote from the paper
"The larvae in the first trial hatched from the eggs spawned before the female was collected from the natural environment.  All of the other larvae for this study were spawned in captivity.  Fifty-five postlarvae (27.5% survivorship) were obtained in the first trial.  The first postlarva was obtained on Day 43, when the survivorship of the larvae was 50% (Fig.2).  Larva survivorship on Day 43 in Trials 2 and 3 was 31.5 and 34.1%, respectively.  In the first trial, all larvae and postlarvae died because of infection by Zoothamnium sp.  In each of the other trials, only one larva developed into postlarval stage, on about Day 70."
 
The broodstock were fed artemia and squid and they mention later that egg quality was likely a factor.  I feed a wider variety, so perhaps I will luck out and not have a 70+ day larval phase with one lone survivor.  Although, my larval numbers keep dwindling, so I am guessing I won't be that lucky!

Okay, today is day 28 for these guys.  They get some enriched artemia and also nhbbs daily.  I've kept up with using green/brown water as well, so there is always phyto around.
 
Day 25 I expected a new stage if they were keeping on their original "schedule."  I pulled two for pics that day.
The first larva:



 
The second larva:





(I caught it pooping! Ha!)


 
They both have five pairs of legs, but the second larva seems to have some weird round shapes.  Is that what they look like when they are becoming biramous?  Is that some weird molt issue or did some of it's legs break off at some point?  I don't know...
 
Then yesterday, day 27, they were due for another water change and I pulled one for pics even though I am not expected a new stage:



(Best tail shot I could get)


That one seemed to only have four pairs of legs, so....
 
I have about twenty left of the older bunch and more, but not a ton more, of the younger batch.

Day 29 pics (these were actually two different larvae, but when I uploaded the images I think they got out of order):
They were "due" to be in a new stage (Z8) for those pics.

I saw an exoskeleton floating around in the container this morning, so there was a molt last night for at least one  I also saw one, maybe two dead ones.  So probably down to 13, maybe less.  Here are the latest pics (from yesterday, day 33):







 
I have no idea what stage they are in... I have two younger batches, one at Day 17, and the other at Day 3.  

Double post 

New stage for at least one of them at day 35!  Most noticeable by the longer antenna (I think that's what it is...)  Only 13 left...




 
The old antenna length:

Okay, after a bit of leg confusion and after some new staging information was shared with me by Luis, I think that these guys are in Z9 based on all 5 PPs showing up.  Not sure if the longer antenna shows up at Z9 as well, or if that is Z10.  I will probably have to go back and look very closely at the pics up to this point to try and figure that out.
Day 39:

Day 41:



 
I still have 13 of the oldest batch, and then two younger batches still going.

Day 49 pics, three separate larvae
#1




 
#2

 
#3

Still working with these.  I have four batches going.  They are at Day 58, 41, 27, and 13.  I only have a handful of the oldest ones, but they are still chugging along although they don't seem to be changing much 

It sounds like the oldest batch is almost exactly in the middle of the range for metamorphosis and settling.  I recall that you had found something like 40 dph and 70 dph from other reports.  So on the bright side, you only have 12 days before they either settle, or you proved the reports wrong!  
 
All kidding aside, I hope they get to settlement soon for you, that you find a market and that you can grow consistent batches.

I'm not sure how soon they will settle though since I still haven't seen any pleopod development...not even buds yet.  So they are probably at least two stages.  The next water change I may add a big dose of copepods and maybe partially grown, enriched bbs.  

I finally have one (at least) from the older batch that has pleopod buds.

 
There is also at least one of the second batch that seems to have some

These are between day 72 and 108 or so (roughly counting since I don't feel like figuring out the exact number of days.  I just know it's a lot). I have two left.  I can't say exactly how old they are since awhile ago I combined the three oldest batches together for ease of maintenance.  After the last water change over the weekend, I gave them only copepods (mix of Apocyclops and Euterpina) and then a small amount of nhbbs this morning.  One is larger than the other and I know that the large one has pleopod buds (but not all of them).  
 
 

The last one disappeared over the weekend. And now I wait for the next hatch so I can start over...

The night of 5-4 and 5-5 I had a hatch.  I set them up in a 3L bottle with rotifers, Iso, Tet, and RG complete for now.

They are getting just Apocyclops now, with Isochrysis. Day 13