# Sattelite breeding boxes for young shrimps



## RONY11 (Jan 6, 2011)

I woud like to know your opinions about the satellite breeding boxes for young shrimps.
How does this system work ? 
What is baby shrimp survival percentage? 
How to keep the box clean? 
What kind of external airpump should I use? 
Do I add a small snail to eat the leftovers? 
Does the new water brought in by the small power head case extreme disturbance/waves in the breeding box? 
How often do I feed? 
What should I use to feed them? 
(I feed with mosura products crs speciality food, bioplus. Ordered and will receive soon Tonic pro, BT-9, Gravidas, Rich water, Mosura Shrimpton and Eros )
Hope hobbyists who use this breeding box can share their experiences. 
Thnx in advance


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## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

I've never used a breeder box. Let me know the results. 
Ive had great results with shrimplets without it. 

At birth I dose a full flat scoop to ensure good coverage with BioPlus. (premixed with tank water and spread across tank)Since baby shrimp dont move much I dont want to take any chances. after first 2-3 days of feeding I cut back 1/2 a scoop every day....
then 1/2 scoop every other day... i have a 60cm tnak so adjust accordingly. 

I find bioplus to not to be contaminating as leaving food in as it generally dissolves itself into the water. 

I think the key is coverage of food and size of tank vs frequency. Frequency will increase odds of shrimplet getting a meal without moving.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

I use a breeder box, mostly it was to monitor how many babies born vs how many alive after a few weeks to get an idea of the rates I was getting. I took substrate from the tank, a piece of lavarock sitting in the tank so it was rich with bio film, bit of moss, small floater plants to give them a good food rich place. I also did it to try and get my SSS male to get the females berried but he never did. I think he was just a special shrimp and didn't like girls, never saw any offspring that looked like him and he was in a breeder box with 4 females that all gave birth, molted, saddled, ready to go and he didn't go for it once. I did get 27 babies from 1 mother and after two weeks still saw about 25-27 of them (hard to count). The thing with them is the flow from the air pump driven system is loud and doesn't pump much water into it.

What I did was drill out a hole in my spraybar from my Eheim, put the tubing into the intake of the breeder box and then I had fresh filtered water from the filter going directly into the box. I also took an airstone, ziptied some sponge to it and put that in there to make a mini sponge filter for more bioflim, filtering in the box and surface agitation to help move old water from the box out to the tank. I also put in some Almond leaves and a moss ball. The grate on it can allow babies out and blocking too much with mesh can plug it up but I never had a problem with babies escaping but others have. You can also use a small internal pump/powerhead to pump water into it. I wouldn't use it only air driven though, found there wasn't enough water being pumped in and its loud.

Here's a pic of mine setup










Here you can see the hose coming from my spraybar directly into the intake of the breederbox.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

That is a neat little set up. I haven't seen a box like that, but then, I wasn't looking for one either. Do most lfs's have these and do you recall roughly what they cost ? Might be way to help with my larval shrimp.. as it is, once a female drops her eggs I have a heck of time finding her to net her out and return her to the main tank. Brood tank is so heavily planted, as I wanted lots of hiding places for babies.. I can't find the girls in there either, unless I am lucky at feeding time and the one I want shows up right in front.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

They're like $15 at BA's


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Thanks.. I'll keep an eye out next time I'm in there. Considering that right now, my brood tank is only 5 G, anything that would increase the water volume even slightly would be good, and if it made removing the females after they drop eggs easier, it would be very much worth it.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

Fishfur said:


> Thanks.. I'll keep an eye out next time I'm in there. Considering that right now, my brood tank is only 5 G, anything that would increase the water volume even slightly would be good, and if it made removing the females after they drop eggs easier, it would be very much worth it.


The product instruction states that your glass needs to be 0.5mm or above to support the bigger one (I didn't read the instructions for the smaller one I have), so for a 5G tank, I wouldn't go too big to be safe. Or, you can do what I did, build a small stand or just cut a piece of 2x4 to support the weight instead of letting the tank glass support it. But the stand idea won't work if there's no support underneath, for example, if you put the box in front of the tank and your stand/table doesn't extend beyond the front of the tank.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Good to know, thanks ! As it happens, the tank is an old one I got from a member and has the metal banding all around, so it's quite sturdy, despite having relatively thin glass. Back when it was made, silicone cost a fortune, so they made tanks differently, to spare silicone. The glass is held in with some sort of asphalt based stuff, very strong, rock hard with age and hard to break, so I'd expect this tank could handle the weight. But it is also not on a stand.. it's on a wide shelf I built long ago to house some big plant stands in front of the window. Two people can stand on this shelf and walk on it, to clean the windows.. and it's two feet wide. So room for props if need be.. though they won't look great. Surprisingly, though the tank is only recently set up, for the shrimplets after I decided to try and raise them.. it' looks really nice. Has much better light than my 30 G so the plants are doing fabulously well..I WISH my 30 looked half so good. But it is very hard to catch adult shrimp simply because it is so heavy with plants so the box sounds like a plan to make that easier. Maybe also save new shrimplets ? Boy I hope so.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I was in BA's today, Mississauga, and the guy said he had never heard of a breeding box that hangs outside a tank. He said if I could get him a SKU number, he could look it up and order it for me. Do you remember which BA's you got it at and is there any chance you still have the price sticker with the SKU number on it ? Probably a faint hope, but the guy looked just mystified when I asked for one of these. The only ones they had on the shelves were the types that go inside a tank. I'd like to get one before my shrimp drop their eggs, but that looks like it will be very, very soon. Maybe tomorrow, the way one of the girls is looking tonight .


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

I didn't keep the box, but AI has two sizes similar ones around the same price. I got the smaller one and it's almost exactly the same as the Marina one.

I just bought two more from this on-line store, but you're too far away to drive all the way to my place for it.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

It was this one

http://ca-en.hagen.com/Aquatic/Misc.-Accessories/Breeders--Salt--Silicone/10943


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Hmm. Well, I'll be in Markham again in a week or two.. forget which it is just now. Maybe I will have to wait. I can be patient, but I really would rather have it NOW ! Two of my girls look ready to burst any minute. But sometimes life simply fails to cooperate . Weird that BA's has never heard of them, but I guess nobody can have everything. Thanks for the info.

I'm also not going to be ordering them online.. yikes.. they want as much as the darn box costs to ship it ! So I will just have to possess myself with patience. I just hope AI has 'em in stock when I get there. Not that going there isn't worthwhile in itself of course.

I would not mind so much except I have read in a couple of articles that ghost shrimp can be aggressive and will eat fry if they can catch them. Their own fry are not very quick when they are newly morphed. I haven't seen an adult eat one, but then, it's not like I can watch them all the time. I am quite sure that either a Ghost or a Whisker ate the very young Snowball shrimp I had in a breeding net enclosure, that I didn't think to cover right away. But the babies in the net also had nowhere to hide or any way to escape.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

Fishfur, AI has them. But if you go there, make sure you get the external ones as they also have the internal ones that take up tank space (these can't be used as external). The reason I mention this is because the ones they sell are made by a Taiwanese manufacturer and the boxes may only have Chinese printed on them.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Randy, you are a wellspring of useful information ! Thanks, I will make sure I check and get the right kind. Should be able to tell if there is a pic on the box.. or maybe they will let me open it to make sure. I bet the instructions would be in Chinese too ? Hope they are reasonably simple and self explanatory or I'll need a translator .


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

Fishfur said:


> Randy, you are a wellspring of useful information ! Thanks, I will make sure I check and get the right kind. Should be able to tell if there is a pic on the box.. or maybe they will let me open it to make sure. I bet the instructions would be in Chinese too ? Hope they are reasonably simple and self explanatory or I'll need a translator .


Fishfur, glad I can be of any help. I don't think there's much instructions but it's pretty straightforward to put everything together.


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