anyone trying to rear cleaner shrimp?

[Six]

I was just wondering if anyone was breeding and trying to raise cleaner shrimp. Or if you know any useful site, LMK. I want to do this eventually.

 

thanks!

6

[mascencerro]

Here is a link to a ReefKeeping magazine article about breeding peppermints, which are also a cleaner, may be able to get some tips or use out of this.

 

Also, here is another article/journal of breeding Lysmata ambionenesis.

 

I read up a little on it after seeing my cleaner molt and carrying eggs, then read a little more after my pair of peps bred and I looked into the tank and saw a couple hundred baby peps swimming erratically toward my flashlight. I didn't try to capture and rear any though because I currently don't have anything to put the babies in and feed. Of course my wife was doing the whole "awww.. babies, lets catch some and raise them".

 

There is also a book about raising and training(?) peppermints, but I don't have a link handy for that one.

 

Hope this helps a little

[jimbro]

I use to do this in college. Peppermints are a piece of cake, cleaners are tough. The main hurdle with the cleaners is their 16 week larval stage. It's a real pain to provide stable conditions through mostly water changes for 16 weeks, while also providing constant supplies of live food.

 

I think, as with most things, the biggest concern is nutrition. We fed rotifers, phyto, newly hatched bbs, and gut-loaded bbs. Some we to got metamorphose, but the survival rates were pretty low.

 

If you're looking to do this as a business venture, you might want to start with peppermints. You'll get much less for them when you sell them, but considering their survival rate compared to the cleaners, and the fact that you could raise three batches of pepps in the time it would take you to raise one batch of cleaners, you might actually make more. HTH

[tasi]

I think mascencerro's thinking of How to Raise and Train Pepermint Shrimp. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but looks good.

[mascencerro]

thats the book... haven't read it, but seen it a couple places