Peppermint Shrimp Breeding 2023

[therootcause]

This is less of a tutorial and more so me attempting to use methods developed by others to be successful in raising peppermint shrimp from zoea (word I learned today) to adult.  I started by reading several posts on Reef2Reef and WAMAS. There are a few WAMAS threads over the past 10 years from members have had interest in breeding them but the threads that I found dried up without much success.

 

Additional resources: 

• https://reefs.com/magazine/behavior-and-breeding-of-peppermint-shrimp/
• https://www.algaebarn.com/blog/invertebrates/shrimp/breeding-peppermint-shrimp/
• Kirkendoll, April, 2001. How to Raise and Train Your Peppermint Shrimp. ( I don't own this book but many of the online articles reference it.)
• Vossen Larval Trap - https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/larval-trap-vossen.html

 

Here is my Vossen trap used to catch the babies.   With filtration and flow running continuously on the reef tank it is incredible that any of the larvae make it into the tank, but sure enough this trap can easily catch over one hundred of them in a night.

 

I believe this shrimp to be 36 hours old. The trap has been in the tank with no air or light driving the larvae to the trap for the past few days, but it somehow manages to collect 40-50 of them just through the tanks flow.

 

Here is a larvae that is 5-12 days old. Unsure of the age as I have collected several times over the past two weeks. The eyes and legs are much more developed as well as the darkening of the exoskeleton.

 

 

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Edited August 3, 2023 by therootcause
words

[DaJMasta]

Glad to see more attempts!  You'll probably have even more success with the trap if you can darken other room or overhead lights - the included light works but isn't super bright, and the tiny shrimps will get confused by multiple light sources or by intense light (brighter flashlights they will actually stay somewhat away from but move towards, and really bright light makes them swim in spirals).

I've had no success with just apocyclops, but have a few other copepods to offer which I have higher hopes for - are you using BBS?  Also what's the vessel/flow look like?

In my attempts, they start looking super lanky around week 3-4 - in a comical fashion - and I think when their legs get that long they may be more fragile and require gentler flow or just fewer things to run into - not 100% sure yet.


Oh, and if you want more attempts for the larvae, you can just add more adult shrimp.  They'll bicker a little bit, but mostly live together in a colony, and since each shrimp is hermaphroditic, they can all carry fertilized eggs giving you more groups of larvae to collect.

[Cris]

Very cool

 

 

[therootcause]

10 hours ago, DaJMasta said:

Glad to see more attempts...

 

Thank you.  Right now there are five adult peppermints in the tank (Waterbox 180.5) and I'm collecting larvae every 2-3 days.    I was still able to capture about 100 larvae with the disappointing light provided with the vossen trap. I wonder how many didn't make it to the trap.

 

For food I'm using BBS that are less than 12 hours old with a table top hatchery.  I've also added small amounts of crushed flake food and spirulina powder.  I haven't seen the shrimp actively feed or gather and pursue food - I also haven't spent much time looking.

 

I'm using the 5 gallon jug pictured below.  I have several of them from culturing copepods a few years ago ($12 at Walmart in 2020 - currently $14.88).  I have not had the container blacked out over the past two weeks, but it is in the basement so it's dark 22 hours out of the day. I may cover it with a trash bag so that it remains dark while I'm working in "the lab".  An airline is moving the water at about 2 bubbles per second.  Most of the shrimp are clinging to the sides of the container and the BBS are free floating.  The eldest shrimp in the container (if still alive) are between 9-16 days old.  I didn't take good notes in the first five days and I can't remember which day I collected the first batch.

 

I started the container with 2 gallons of water from my reef tank and then added 1/2 gallon of new, heated, saltwater every 2 days to dilute waste.  Once at five gallons I've siphoned out 1/2 gallon each night and replaced with water from my reef tank AWC.  

9 hours ago, Cris said:

Very cool

 

Thank you Cris!

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by therootcause

[Kathryn Lawson]

Larvae every 2-3 days, wow! I didn't realize it was that frequent, though I guess with 5 that all can carry eggs, it makes sense. I'm waiting on my sexy shrimp - I've got two females, and they apparently release larvae every 2 weeks. Annoyingly, it seems I completely missed one last night, despite staying up late to try to catch it, and setting up a DIY larvae catcher as an overnight backup. The female had eggs practically spilling out yesterday, and none today... time for more waiting! Though that will give my pods some time to get going - I would have had to try this run with dry food if I'd caught it.

[therootcause]

16 minutes ago, Kathryn Lawson said:

Larvae every 2-3 days, wow! I didn't realize it was that frequent, though I guess with 5 that all can carry eggs, it makes sense. I'm waiting on my sexy shrimp - I've got two females, and they apparently release larvae every 2 weeks. Annoyingly, it seems I completely missed one last night, despite staying up late to try to catch it, and setting up a DIY larvae catcher as an overnight backup. The female had eggs practically spilling out yesterday, and none today... time for more waiting! Though that will give my pods some time to get going - I would have had to try this run with dry food if I'd caught it.

 

With peppermint shrimp I think it is the "male" in the mating event that holds the eggs, while also being considered a "female-phase" adult.  Gender pronouns unknown, ha.  I wonder if sexy shrimp breed in the same manner. 

 

Here is something interesting that I read yesterday...

"Peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni) are protandric simultaneous hermaphrodite. It means that all individuals first mature as a male (male-phase) and then later change to a female (female-phase – FP) that spawns and broods embryos but can also mate as a male.

They have a remarkable capability of copulating and inseminating as males on the very night in which they themselves undergo a spawning molt and copulate, as females, with another FP. Mating experiments confirmed that Lysmata wurdemanni females are capable of mating as a male or as a female with subsequent spawning of eggs. They are, however, incapable of self-fertilization."

Source: https://aquariumbreeder.com/peppermint-shrimp-detailed-guide-care-diet-and-breeding/

 

Try saying this 3x fast!  

"protandric simultaneous hermaphrodite

protandric simultaneous hermaphrodite

protandric simultaneous hermaphrodite"

[DaJMasta]

Interesting that you see them clinging to the sides - I thought they were entirely free swimming as larvae, and the only ones I've seen on a surface have been the exhausted ones on the bottom.  Also interesting with the flow - maybe I'll try some lower flow.

As for feeding behavior, especially as young larvae I think they just wave their arms until something's in there - they aren't that strong or coordinated swimmers and I'm not sure they have a lot of ability to look at a specific target until they can orient themselves well and their eyes stalk out (in the first couple of zoea).  I've only fed BBS a few times in my runs, but I remember seeing one actually holding an unhatched BBS egg I accidentally added, giving me the impression they just sort of grab on.

 

They do always seem to want to swim towards the light, so I've been keeping a dim light overhead on all the time - it doesn't seem to be detrimental, but it may not be helpful, couldn't say for sure.  They will generally swim over to a flashlight if you offer it.

Oh and @Kathryn Lawson I think sexy shrimp do usually spawn later in the night - my peppermints have usually spawned shortly after dark whereas the sexy shrimp have been 2-3am sometimes.  The one helpful thing is that they more reliably start to turn green the night of spawning (I think because of the molt), so if you could trap and isolate the female, you may be able to catch all of the spawn, though then she'd probably not have another batch of larvae at the next molt.  Since the spawn timings are directly related to the sun cycle, you could probably slide your photoperiod to earlier in the day and get them to hatch at a more reasonable hour of the night.

[Kathryn Lawson]

@DaJMasta Interesting that your sexies have been spawning around 2-3 am! I actually saw what I think is the same female spawn like 10 minutes before lights out at 10pm exactly 2 weeks ago, and had read that others found similar timing right before/after lights out, but maybe that previous one was unusually early - I guess time will tell! I haven't noticed a green color, but both times the eggs have been practically spilling out during the day beforehand and thus provided a visual cue. I'll have to pay more attention to their color in the future, especially for the second female that I haven't seen spawn or noticeably have/lose eggs yet.

 

I might try trapping the female in the future, but like you said, she might not have another batch at the next molt. I suspect spawning frequency is going to be more helpful than larvae number for my first attempts, so will hold off on that for now. Although I potentially saw mating behavior mid-day today, so maybe it wouldn't be too late if I added her back in the morning.

[therootcause]

@DaJMasta Interesting that your sexies have been spawning around 2-3 am! I actually saw what I think is the same female spawn like 10 minutes before lights out at 10pm exactly 2 weeks ago, and had read that others found similar timing right before/after lights out, but maybe that previous one was unusually early - I guess time will tell! I haven't noticed a green color, but both times the eggs have been practically spilling out during the day beforehand and thus provided a visual cue. I'll have to pay more attention to their color in the future, especially for the second female that I haven't seen spawn or noticeably have/lose eggs yet.
 
I might try trapping the female in the future, but like you said, she might not have another batch at the next molt. I suspect spawning frequency is going to be more helpful than larvae number for my first attempts, so will hold off on that for now. Although I potentially saw mating behavior mid-day today, so maybe it wouldn't be too late if I added her back in the morning.

I believe the fertilization occurs immediately following the molt and if the shrimp is isolated during that time then it would miss the opportunity
until the next cycle. I may be mixing up the order of events…


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[Kathryn Lawson]

@therootcause I think sexies all start as male, but am not sure if they all convert to female eventually, or if they would have viable larvae without explicitly having a male present.

 

RE fertilization, I think that's true but don't know how large of a window there is.

[therootcause]

Let’s take the day to just admire the ridiculous features of a three week old peppermint shrimp. Enjoy.






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[therootcause]

Do you think that carrot nose is a baby artemia sticking out of it's mouth - or part of the shrimps anatomy?!

[DaJMasta]

I'm wondering if those are actual peppermints?  I wasn't really thinking about it earlier, but I think by the end of the first week I'd expect their eyes to be in stalks instead of on the carapace directly, and at 3 weeks I think you'd notice the lankiness - a couple pairs of very long legs.

I don't have good stills under a microscope from my attempts - I've actually missed documenting most of it, apparently - but there's a good rundown of someone who's had some success here: https://bogott.net/unspecified/?p=2254
 

As for the protrusion, I think that's just the rostrum, that pointed noise piece a shrimp's anatomy has.  There are a number of inverts that have very distinctly shrimp looking larvae that end up looking different - maybe the larvae you've got here is for something else in the tank.

[therootcause]

OH MY... @DaJMasta  you are right!  when I collected peppermints a few years ago I swear they had tiny claws from the moment that they hatched!  And I remember their little legs moving as they floated around - could it be mysis??

 

It might not be three weeks old.  The oldest shrimp in the container should be around three weeks. I grabbed the largest shrimp I could find while taking a 30 second look around the tub. So this shrimp in theory is anywhere from 1-3 weeks old.  I also only looked at this single specimen as I ran out of time and had to accomplish some other things this morning. 

 

I remember my older peppermints did have longer legs so what the heck are we looking at then?  There is a skunk cleaner and 5 peppermints in the tank. The peppermints have eggs often.  The vossen trap is running so hopefully there will be some to collect this week.  

 

Edited August 7, 2023 by therootcause

[therootcause]

This thread is officially a dumpster fire.  There is no way for me to edit the title or previous posts so whoever reads this thread, God Bless'm.  @Kathryn Lawson, have you started your Sexy Shrimp thread?

Edited August 7, 2023 by therootcause

[DaJMasta]

Haha, it can veer back on track when you get some more spawn!

In my experience, fire cleaner, skunk cleaner, and peppermint shrimp larvae all look very similar on day one - they are all in the same genus, so maybe that's not so surprising.  I don't think this larva has the look of any of them, but another shrimp (maybe mysis, not sure exactly what their larvae look like) could certainly be, and surprisingly, a lot of crabs look like shrimp in their early larval stages.  It doesn't really look like the other invert spawns I've seen in my tank (porcelain crab, hermit crab, pistol shrimp), but it very well could be some species of one of them too.

[Kathryn Lawson]

A mystery indeed! What's your tank stocking? Maybe we can narrow down the possibilities?

 

I haven't started a thread for the sexy shrimp yet, though that's not a bad idea - had been waiting until I had something of interest to report! In the meantime, I've been keeping notes on my phone

[therootcause]

1 hour ago, Kathryn Lawson said:

A mystery indeed! What's your tank stocking? Maybe we can narrow down the possibilities?

 

I haven't started a thread for the sexy shrimp yet, though that's not a bad idea - had been waiting until I had something of interest to report! In the meantime, I've been keeping notes on my phone

 

As far as inverts that were intentionally added. There is one sea cucumber, one banded serpent starfish, 350 hermit crabs, 100 asterina snails, 5 peppermint shrimp, five emerald crabs, and 1 skunk cleaner shrimp.  At some point i must have added some mysid (maybe from macroalgae or a piece of live rock).