Raising shrimp on phytoplankton

[Guest Cory]

I found my way over to the saltier side trying to follow a recipe to make shrimp.

Breeding Cardina Japonica

 

These shrimp are cleaners for docile FW planted tanks, and generally enjoyable to watch. Basically they spend their first 4 days in FW, and then move to saltwater for 30-45d. I'm not particularly fond of using commercial products they just cost a ton. Right now i'm raising about a dozen off Kents phytoplex. I got interested in other feeding methods and found a guy that ripens a 1g tank of phyto, then tosses in the freshly hatched shrimp and then simply waits.

 

All this sites i have read about phyto recommend a 6-9d period and never to use an older bottle of phyto. What i would like to do is prep a tank for a new hatch of shrimp by growing a 2.5g tank of phyto starting about a week earlier than i expect shrimp. If anyone could chime in about the hassles i'll encounter trying to sustain a single tank of phyto for a month and a half, I would appreciate it very much. I get my next run at this in about 2 1/2 weeks, currently i have ~5 mysis stage shrimp, from a very low hatch rate, surviving on phytoplex.

[xeon]

I culture my own phytoplankton, Nanochloropsis specifically. I use two liter bottles as my culture vessels. Keeping it going isn't too difficult. The only work I put into it is mixing up more water when my supply runs out for new cultures and harvesting it every 9 days or so. My decision to harvest is a visual thing.. when it gets dark enough or shows signs of crashing out, I harvest and restart cultures. So, I mess with my cultures about three times a month. You can run the cultures longer by adding more fertilize, but I found you need to shake them often so they don't crash. I'd rather harvest than mess with them daily.

 

Restarting consists of filling two new or cleaned bottles about a third full of the phyto I harvest, adding f/2(fertilizer) and putting it back in the culture station. If this isn't going to be an ongoing thing for you, it might be better/easier to just buy some already cultured phyto. Using real phyto will be an improvement over the dead "yet preserved" cells in the Pytoplex. There are people on E-bay and Florida Aquaculture sells a nice bag of phyto. Or if you are close enough, I could probably increase my culturing when you needed it. The next two weeks are kind of tough though.

 

Here is a link to a generic setup for phyto culturing.

http://www.sjwilson.net/reef/phytosteps.html

[Guest Cory]

Is there an alternative source to FAF for the GUILLARD F/2 FORMULATION? I did find people saying that they used miracle grow, interested in what type, but inconsistent results. I think Nanochloropsis will work especially well for me because SW is something i only prepare for these shrimp for now. The bottom line is i want to keep my time and cost as low as possible.

[xeon]

You are right, some people use Miracle-Gro liquid All-Purpose Plant Food. I have no personal experience with it though. Here's the link: http://www.miraclegro.com/index.cfm/event/...fc7853f91a11165

 

Since this doesn't sound like a large ongoing operation, the f/2 won't be much of an expense. Here's where I get my culturing stuff from:

www.florida-aqua-farms.com/

[Guest Cory]

I'm sure i can follow flame angel's guide, and have it setup in a few days. it's a shame the timeline is playing out as it is, xeon thank you for your generosity offering to help. I live on the north side of the Washington beltway, close to where your meeting is on saturday but I'm likely unable to attend. I'm not sure why i had it in my head this was gonna be an expensive endeavor, it looks like it'll be about 20 bucks + shipping to get the culture and fertilizer from FAF.