# big fat amano!



## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I just noticed... one of the amanos I got just a few weeks ago is huge... she's busting with eggs ! Boy do I hope I get the brackish tank up in time to try raising her kids. Wish me luck. 
I can't believe how big she is, cause none of them were berried when I got them, so this has happened in just the past couple of weeks, I think. Also have more baby ghost shrimp, though not as many as I thought I did. I suspect the Amano shrimp may be eating some of the baby ghosts.. I'll have to put them in another tank soon as I get one set up for them.. but that's not going to happen overnight.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Unfortunately, don't get your hopes up too much. My amanos are constantly berried, and I've never seen any larva being hatched, even when I put the shrimp in a tank by itself. The only thing that happens is the eggs vanish.

That said, if you do manage to get some larva, let us know!


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Well, I know the larvae need brackish water to live more than three or four days. Past that, in FW, they die. If, by chance, you have fish in the tank, chances are any larvae are eaten before you even have a chance to see them.

And while I have read they are large enough to be seen with the naked eye, they are still very,very tiny. They're attracted to light, so put a light at one side of the tank. Hopefully it will attract them and make them easier to see. I'd also remove the mama the instant I saw the eggs were gone, because it's possible she might eat them.

If you manage to get some larvae, aka zoeys, and want to grow them you'll have to set up a brackish tank.. which I plan to do. I think I'm going to put berried females into one of those breeding traps that have the holes in the bottom, so the eggs will hopefully fall through and she won't be able to eat them.. also be easy to return her to her own tank. Then I'd have the light going and hope to see zoeys, and then transfer them to the brackish tank.

Does seem a bit odd that the eggs can hatch in fresh water, but not live in it, but such is nature. If you manage to get some zoeys and set up a brackish tank, then you have a month of feeding cultured algae to keep them alive and growing until they start to morph. Once they morph, which I have read may not be all at once, you put the shrimplets into another container, and lower the water's salinity over a few days 'til it's pretty much all fresh, and then you can put them in a FW growout tank. I wouldn't put them in with adults until they're at least a half inch long.

I learned early in my first tries to hatch ghost shrimp, who don't even need brackish water, that leaving the moms in with the newly morphed shrimplets resulted in a lot fewer shrimplets. And ghost larvae were not visible at all. The eggs vanished and four days later, I found a bunch of tiny shrimplets all floating near the surface.. perfect little replicas of the parents but not even an 1/8th of an inch long. And most of that first batch, I think, were eaten by their moms, who I had left in the tank. Next time I took the moms out and got lot of babies to survive. But needing brackish water and the much longer incubation period really does complicate things.

So maybe your Amano mom ate her zoeys before you ever had a chance to see any, or maybe they just weren't viable. In nature, I doubt they get much chance to eat any offspring, because they drop them near a river estuary, where they are carried away by the currents immediately. They hatch and are carried out to sea by the currents and tides. They spend a month at sea growing, morph into shrimplets and any that survive swim back into the river waters. 

But for me, so far, it's all academic, as I've never done it, only read about it. If I miss this time, I'll just try again.


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## RevoBuda (Sep 3, 2011)

FishFur you are right, but there have been cases of the odd hatchling being able to survive to adult hood. I personally have had my Amano's berried many times and believe it or not, have had a couple survive. It's an infantismal number of these cuties that survive from hatchlings in freshwater. I couldn't believe it! I did some crazy research and found that there is the odd number that do indeed survive and was overjoyed! Started out with 10 and have over 15 after over a year of them being in my planted 150g.

Good Luck!


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## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

I would not move mom around. The change in salinity will kill saltwater shrimp. I would think that unless the change was gradual, the same may be true with your FW shrimp. Perhaps a netted breeder, the ones that hang over the side. Once mama drops the eggs, you can then do a fast acclimation to the brackish tank. Taking mom out first.?

Just some thoughts. I am no expert! But conversations like this, are how the hobby evolves.

Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

That is fascinating to hear they sometimes survive to adulthood in freshwater. Be a neat experiment, if you deliberately bred from those who did survive to adulthood in freshwater.. you might end up with a strain that had a viable survival rate without the need for brackish water. That would be fantastic. If you don't have time to do that, I'd trade you some of my Amanos for any of yours that managed to survive birth and grow up in FW.

JT, I wouldn't be putting an adult Amano into salt water. In fact, I had already thought a breeding trap would be best, in a small bare FW tank, so that once the eggs drop, I could return Mom to her own tank, then put the eggs or zoeys into the brackish one.. and then once they morph, I would gradually reduce the salinity, to simulate swimming back from the sea through an estuary, until their water was mostly fresh and then into all FW. Or at least that's what one account of successful breeding I've read suggests to do. Another says you can just drop 'em straight into fresh after they morph.. but it seems to me that would be a big shock and I'd not be confident about trying that.

Anybody know how long an Amano carries eggs before dropping them ? Any signs they are about to drop, such as seeing them start to slide down those 'legs' or perhaps a change of colour ?


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## RevoBuda (Sep 3, 2011)

If my pop grows larger I'd be willing to do this! I hope that I can have a strain of freshwater breeding Amanos where it successively bares more offspring!

I have read that you can just drop your amanos directly from fresh to salt without an issue.

Haven't tried it.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Considering how it works in nature, it ought to be possible to do just that.. drop the babies directly into fresh from salt, or vice versa, but it's also vastly different in the ocean/estuary environment than it is in small, artificial environments with little glass walls. Overall, I'd be inclined to take the extra time, but if I had sufficient success at it, I'd probably experiment with it as well, simply to see if it did work. 'twould save time, if you didn't have to gradually lower salinity for the shrimplets. But time will tell. Got the materials today to build the shelf that my brackish tank will be living on for now.. so I hope to get it built fast and get the brackish tank going.


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