# Artificial Shrimp Hatching



## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

I found a molt shell of one of my pregnant shrimp. It has a single egg attached to it. I didn't want it to go to waste (It already has eyes) so I put it into very small Betta bowl, which I flipped upside down into the tank, I left a small area for water to enter and exit. There isn't enough space for an adult shrimp to go in (I only have adults in my tank) but it should be enough room for a baby shrimp or water to go in and out of. Has anyone tried this method?


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

Btw, this is a red cherry shrimp egg I'm trying it with.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Hope it works .


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

It's very interesting.

Shrimps fans their eggs. Eggs might need a fresh water and additional oxygen ...


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

igor.kanshyn said:


> It's very interesting.
> 
> Shrimps fans their eggs. Eggs might need a fresh water and additional oxygen ...


I just added a few bubbles of air into the little jar, I also added a crushed piece of algae wafer.


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

Joeee said:


> I just added a few bubbles of air into the little jar, I also added a crushed piece of algae wafer.


Heres an article on artificially hatching shrimp eggs if you're interested. http://planetinverts.com/Artifically Hatching Eggs.html

I'd advise against the algae wafers as shrimp eggs need alot of clean and oxygenated water.


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

jon021 said:


> Heres an article on artificially hatching shrimp eggs if you're interested. http://planetinverts.com/Artifically Hatching Eggs.html
> 
> I'd advise against the algae wafers as shrimp eggs need alot of clean and oxygenated water.


The algae wafer is extremely small, I used a pester and mortar to grind it up.

Thanks for the article, I've read it a few times before I started my shrimp tank.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Joeee said:


> The algae wafer is extremely small, I used a pester and mortar to grind it up.
> 
> Thanks for the article, I've read it a few times before I started my shrimp tank.


So you increased the surface area so fungus can grow on it. 

Clean water. Move water through it with a pump or something. That rotting shrimp shell isn't doing the egg any favors either.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

So, you feed this egg by an algae wafer  
Or you are trying to encourage it to hatch faster by giving it a food  

Wait until it will be born and then think about feeding it


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

igor.kanshyn said:


> Or you are trying to encourage it to hatch faster by giving it a food


That was good


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

Update: Egg hatched and the little shrimp ate the minute amount of algae wafer I had in there.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

Congratulations!

I think that some leafs from live plans with some amount of algae would be a good food.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

I've found one of my RCS died today. It had three eggs on her body.
I've torn off that shell part with eggs. Then placed eggs into a plastic box in the tank.

I might be lucky to have them hatched.


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

AquariAM said:


> So you increased the surface area so fungus can grow on it.
> 
> Clean water. Move water through it with a pump or something. That rotting shrimp shell isn't doing the egg any favors either.


My water is 0.003 mol/L CuSO4, fungus won't be growing in there anytime soon. Reducing the mass of the object also reduces the surface area, assuming that density remains the same. (i.e 
a sphere with mass 0.3g has less surface area than a sphere with 0.5g, so long as both have the same density).

The exoskeleton is made out of chitin (C8H13O5N), it needs either enzymes or a catalyst in order to rot. When it does, the ammonia it produces is negligible. The catalysts that chitin requries to degrade are not present in a home aquarium and the enzymes that it requires to degrade are marine bacteria. If there is a bacteria which can degrade it (existing in freshwater), then that bacteria can be used to feed the shrimp.

And too strong a water flow and the egg will be lost, too weak and it won't make a difference. I'd rather it be too weak.



igor.kanshyn said:


> So, you feed this egg by an algae wafer
> Or you are trying to encourage it to hatch faster by giving it a food
> 
> Wait until it will be born and then think about feeding it


The container that I covered the egg with was completely new. There is no reason for me to believe that there was a single organism that the fry could eat. Gravel has been recently added, so not that many microorganisms are present.


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## arktixan (Mar 30, 2010)

Wow that sounds so neat I read that website very cool info indeed.... Are you going to post some pics? I'd like to see how you did your container in the tank and your survivor


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

arktixan said:


> Wow that sounds so neat I read that website very cool info indeed.... Are you going to post some pics? I'd like to see how you did your container in the tank and your survivor


My survivor sort of ran off somewhere in the plants, I'll post a pic of the setup as soon as I can get my hands on a camera.


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