Any luck breeding Coral Banded Shrimp?

[Chuck]

I believe I have a pregnant Coral Banded shrimp as you can see the egg cluster. Any idea how long the gestation period is?
I doubt I could raise them but they may be good food for the inverts....
:roll:

[MikeP]

I know people have had success with most of the major Lysmata species: lysmata ambionesis (skunk cleaner) , lysmata debelius (blood shrimp) and the humble lysmata wurdemanni (Peppermint). The only advice I can offer is if they hatch and you want to try and collect the larvae is turn the lights off and use a small maglight near one corner of the tank, the larvae shoudl congregate there and you can scoop / siphon a few out. If you don't have a ready source of food for the next few months and can devote a lot of time I wouldn't even bother. Stenopus / CBS have apparently been raised in the labratory but I couldn't find anything about commercial breeding. Mortality on the larvae is pretty high up to a point and when they 'settle' into their adult form and aren't in a free swimming stage is the hardest part. Many people do fine up till then and then lose most all of the pre adult shrimp. If you are interested check out the breeder's registry on the web or there is a great little book you can get from Amazon called "How to Raise and Train Your Peppermint Shrimp" which would be a good starting point. I used to breed freshwater fish when I was younger and looking at the requirements for most motile invertebrates it is daunting to say the least. Good luck and if nothing else you will have some free food for your tank.

[Tim Marvin]

I have a pair that is constantly breeding. I don't pay attention, but I don't think she carries the eggs more than about 8-10 days. I have never tried to raise any, raising them just sounds like more work than I want. I have my hands full fragging corals.