Cleaner shrimp eggs

[kkiel02]

I have had two cleaner shrimp and one fire shrimp for a month or two now. Last night I noticed the bright green eggs on the under side of the larger cleaner. From what I've read they are hard to keep alive but wihout fish in my tank maybe??? Anyone tried raising these before?

Ps they are supposed to be pretty regular about egg making around every 14 days.

[ErikH]

Use those BBS I gave you to feed them!

[kkiel02]

Yeah I put the bbs in there and without fish in the tank this would be their beat chance at survival. It would be cool if they make it but from what I've read it's pretty tough.

[bjgf15]

I usually don't like to discourage anyone from trying their hand at captive propagation of reef animals as I feel it is the way of the future but here's the problem;

Commercial aquaculture facilities and research facilities have not even been successful at raising them yet. UT's Marine science institute have done peppermint shrimp and now ORA does them commercially. UT has also done fire shrimp (with only moderate success) and is currently working on the cleaner shrimp but so far have not been successful.

Truth is, no one really knows how to raise these guys yet. They have an EXTREMELY long larval duration (50+ days for fire shrimp) and very high mortality rates. I suggest for anyone that seriously wants to try their hand at raising shrimp... try the peppermints. They seem to be the easiest and most hardy.

For the average aquarist, the most benefit you will get from a breeding pair of shrimp is some nice coral food every 10-14 days ;)

[kkiel02]

Yeah that's pretty much what I've read. I'm sure my skimmer will kill most of them after they hatch anyways. Since they are hermaphradetic I except the other to carry eggs soon. Coral food is better than nothing I guess.