Michelle H

I just brought home some ghost shrimp and I have a female with eggs. Right now she's in a 1 gallon tank with no substrate, filter, heater or anything. I basically stuck her in there just until I get more information.

What I've read so far indicates that she should do well without a heater since that little tank stays about 72f degrees on its own. I'm not sure if I should bother with a filter since it will be an overwhelming current in that tiny thing. I'm more than willing to do daily partial changes and can't imagine a couple of shrimp are going to gum up the waters too much. Once the eggs hatch out she'll go into one of my larger tanks, of course. Until then I'm thinking about adding some gravel, some plastic floating plants for the eventual larvae and doing a daily water change of about 25% while keeping an eye on my water chemistry.

As far as food requirements go the recommendations are all over the place. Some say the larvae will do well on flakes, some say you have to have live newborn brine shrimp, another says powder algae tablets are all it takes. I'll probably throw a bit of this and a bit of that into the tank and see how it goes. After about a week, once the larval stage is over, I'll probably move them into an empty 5 gallon until they mature.

Since there don't seem to be any hard, fast rules for breeding ghost shrimp I was wondering if anyone had raised a batch successfully and what special steps you took, if any. Do you see any flaws in the plans I've outline?

Thanks!