Lysmata Debelius Breeding Log

[BaboonScience]

Porter
Is this the article that you are talking about?
http://spo.nwr.noaa.gov/mfr612/mfr6121.pdf
John

[PaulG]

Hey Paul,
My congratulations to you on your success with completing the debelius life cycle...You're one up on me there.
For what it's worth back when I was raising peppermints I soon found a real need for a dedicated growout system especially as I was dealing with some 200+ postlarvae. The first time I raised them in 2003 I got nearly 80 and put them all in a 10 gallon and every time one tried to molt it was cannibalized by all the rest.
Eventually I created a system with stainless steel shelves (like those used in hotel banquets) with shallow plastic storage trays for growout. I even went so far as to make hundreds of plastic cups with squares cut out on their sides and wrapped with windowscreen for each individual shrimp. The problem with that was that the water in the cups would get stagnant and fetid. Also the small space each shrimp was in inhibited growth from my observation.
Larger screened partitions would have been the solution there.
If you ever get a chance to check out a wonderful article about Homarid Lobster Hatcheries by Nicosia and Lavalli (51 pages), it shows diagrams of growout stackable trays for lobsters in a Scottish hatchery that is much like mine. A really cool feature of that system is a siphon feature that flushes the trays with new water periodically keeping the lobsters' compartment water freshened. Interestingly peppermint rearing is very nearly identical to lobster culture.
Now I know none of us could hope to have that scale of growout with postlarval debelius (if only!), but tiny postlarval shrimp are extremely delicate and do indeed tend to just disappear in regular aquaria. What with all the work put into raising them, I make sure they are grown out individually in meticulously screened safe spaces, fed well, with no possibility of cannibalism.

Porter Betts

Porter thanks for the inof regarding the Homarid Lobsters, quite interesting. I had thoughts of doing something similar some time back based on the trays that they hatch salmon eggs in but have never gotten around to experimenting with it.
Maybe the next spawn (which happens a few days back) when they settle I'll have something on hand to segregate teh little buggers, I had thought that canibilism may of been a problem hence why I moved several to other tanks.

Now its back to teh waiting game the the batch to settle

[PaulG]

Not much has happened with any breeding stuff due to real life issues (don't you hate them?)

I still have this remaining shrimp and he/it is doing well... I have him in with his parents (due to lack of space anywhere else) and he is holding his own, he has not grown much probab;y slightly larger than 25mm now.

Andy, how quickly should these guys grow in teh wild?

[Amie]

Approx. 5mm in 5 month? I wouldn't know if that is normal or not, but that is slooooowww.

[brad1253]

i didnt see it here but from start to finish what are you feeding the larva?

[PaulG]

Predominently enriched baby brine shrimp followed by shaved table shrimp during the last 2weeks.

[TheJordans]

Hey Paul
Thanks for posting your breeding log throughout your venture - it's made for interesting and beneficial reading!
Can I ask you, in your opinion/experience, how long are NHBBS/BBS viable for as a beneficial and appropriately sized food source for the larvae throughout their stages? Les and I have developed different opinions on this after reading different fact sheets/breeding logs etc.
TIA!
Bek and Les

[damer]

Hi all.

it is with great sadness that I inform everyone on MOFIB the Paul passed away yesterday.

I am sure many of us have and will benefit from his journals and the information posted.

may he rest in peace.

Damien