pep shrimp babies

[SteveDola]

Ive have 4 peps in my tank for cleanup and whatnot. Never really thought twice about them. I like them but more for clean up than appearance. Last night about 1230am I got the erge to turn on the flash light. Well it seems theyve been "busy" because I see tons of tiny red pep shrimp running from the light. Very cool to watch. Theyre about the size of a mysis shrimp and red. I dont really have many predetors of them in the tank (besides the big peps and a pr of clowns)...so my question is- what do you think the chances of them growing up and surviving in my tank is?

 

[ScooterNH]

Ive have 4 peps in my tank for cleanup and whatnot. Never really thought twice about them. I like them but more for clean up than appearance. Last night about 1230am I got the erge to turn on the flash light. Well it seems theyve been "busy" because I see tons of tiny red pep shrimp running from the light. Very cool to watch. Theyre about the size of a mysis shrimp and red. I dont really have many predetors of them in the tank (besides the big peps and a pr of clowns)...so my question is- what do you think the chances of them growing up and surviving in my tank is?

They might be difficult. i thought of it early on but then decided it was too much work for me. I donated a book "How to raise and train Peppermint Shrimp" to the BRS. It should be in the library.

 

[SteveDola]

what do they eat?rotifiers?

 

[uprr]

congrats!

congradulations and good luck with the peps. i could have sworn one of mine was"egging" to quote a lobster fisherman friend of mine, but now i don't see the eggs. maybe i'll try the flashlight tonight!

 

[ScooterNH]

Sometimes you will see them carrying the eggs beneath their tails. From what I recall they mate after molting. My peps seem to have eggs somewhat frequently. And they release them at dark (not exactly sure what the trigger is). Once I actually saw it happen. It was at night and I saw the pep with eggs climbing around and then al of a sudden it was zipping all over the tank releasing the fry. By the next morning they were all long gone. Either eaten or sucked up in filters.

So even if you can't manage to raise them (Each of their 7 or so molt stages presents it's own set of challenges), they could be providing food to the other tank inhabitants. And if you have several of them they will breed fairly often.

Seriously snag that book from the library and give it a read.

Edit : I take that back. Now the book "How to Raise and Train Peppermint Shrimp" seems to be mysteriously missing from the library. Someone must have snagged it and kept it. That sucks.
Anyway it wasn't an expensive book and can be found online.

 

[SteveDola]

that makes sense because they just molted.ty guys ill look for the book

 

[Aquaman_68]

Tough if not impossible to get them to grown out stage. Great filter feeder food though!!! I caught both my peps & my cleaners releasing fry many times!! (that is before my 6 line decided to make all of them a meal at one time or another!!)

Now I have none left in the tank!!!

Anyone have a fork handy? I need to remove a six line that looks like a tang from my tank!!!!

 

[GinaD]

Did the 6-line eat the fry or all the adults too?

 

[Rays]

I have a half a dozen in my seahorse tank, boy are the horses happy!

 

[Aquaman_68]

Did the 6-line eat the fry or all the adults too?

Everything ate the fry!! Including the hermits. The six line chowed every adult in the tank till ther were none left!!