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It's hard to "breed" live mysis/mysid? Not in my tanks!

Some where along the road of getting corals & LR from fellow reefers I introduced some mysis in my tanks. Now I've been told and read " Mysid shrimp are very difficult to culture because they are highly cannibalistic " which would make me think that I'd see a few here and there in the tanks, since besides being eaten by fish they are eating eachother.

However that's not the case, my tanks are simply full of them...at one point you couldn't look at my aquapod w/o seeing them swarming (for lack of a better term) everywhere, there seem to be a bit less now but I've also cut back on my feedings and introduced another fish.

The sump on my recently setup 70g is absolutely FULL of them, the whole thing is swarming... decent number of pods in there as well. Less visible inside the tank, however I have a shrimp hungry 6 line who is endlessly patrolling but I can see them and pods inside the rocks.

Further showing mine don't seem to eat eachother (at least not alot) when I found the hitch hiker crab in my tank and didn't have the heart to flush him I set up a 3g for him with some small pieces of LR from my tank. This 3g went under my 30g cube and honestly I forgot about it more then I remembered it... only tossing in a shrimp pellet every few days for the crab to eat. Well in no time at all it was also full of mysis shrimp running all over the place. They go nuts for flake food as well.

Also noted that the adults have a reddish color to them... now this is a very very long shot and I'm sure not possible, but figured I'd ask because, well you never know ;) I from time to time give my fish some of the live freshwater cherry shrimp I used to breed as a treat, amazingly enough the shrimp (if not eaten right away) last at least an hour in the saltwater (this going straight from freshwater to the reef, not acclimating food items) is there any chance at all that some sort of cross breeding happened or a female cherry released babies who for some reason survived in the saltwater? Just wondering why the mysis have the reddish color and don't seem as cannibalistic as I've read they should be.

Am I just lucky to have free food breeding so well in my systems or maybe have a different strain?

-Candi
 
Happy to share, not really sure how to catch them since they are tiny & fast but I think if I grabbed some cheato and LR from my sump and gave it a good shake/swish in a baggy of water you'd get a good number. Welcome to come by anytime, I'm in Port Monmouth!
 
Candi, I think you have a "super strain" of the little buggers. The water I pulled from your tank when I got the rock had a few in it. I used a turkey baster to pull them out and drop them in my sump.

Now, a few weeks later, my sump is SWARMING with them, and I swear, I couldn't have put more than a dozen or so in there.

Of course, I don't mind, because I turkey baster them out and squirt them in my 12 gallon and the puffer goes CRAZY for them. The discus likes em too, even though she's fresh water.

BTW, if you use a brine net, you can catch them pretty easily too. They tend to congregate around my return pump for some strange reason.

Anyone who gets these from her is sure to have swarms of them in no time! LOL! :)
 
"Candi Shrimp" anyone?

You should bottle them and sell them for starter cultures. ;D

mfisher2112, do they seem to pass through the return pump alive or does it mulch them up?

Carlo
 
I'm so glad you've had the same experience, and people are less likely to think I'm making this up or nuts hehee

As for passing through the return, I can't really say... I'd imagine they can get through since when I stir things up in the sump larger particles then they are seem to get blown into the main, of course I have that porous marco rock so any in my main are hiding well LOL

Wish I could catch that 6 line, I might just be able to keep a mandarin in a year if I did (assuming they like shrimp) wishful thinking ;)


mfisher2112 said:
Candi, I think you have a "super strain" of the little buggers. The water I pulled from your tank when I got the rock had a few in it. I used a turkey baster to pull them out and drop them in my sump.

Now, a few weeks later, my sump is SWARMING with them, and I swear, I couldn't have put more than a dozen or so in there.

Of course, I don't mind, because I turkey baster them out and squirt them in my 12 gallon and the puffer goes CRAZY for them. The discus likes em too, even though she's fresh water.

BTW, if you use a brine net, you can catch them pretty easily too. They tend to congregate around my return pump for some strange reason.

Anyone who gets these from her is sure to have swarms of them in no time! LOL! :)
 
Candi said:
As for passing through the return, I can't really say... I'd imagine they can get through since when I stir things up in the sump larger particles then they are seem to get blown into the main, of course I have that porous marco rock so any in my main are hiding well LOL
Cool thanks.

BTW, wasn't knocking the marco rock previously. What I mentioned was "strictly bacteria wise" and not other fauna type things. The marco type rock is probably IMHO better for this type of thing. Rock has many uses. This is a case of when I shouldn't have made a comment in the first place. :)

Carlo
 
I would have to say that they do pass through the return. When I introduced them to my system, I did it via the refugium in the sump. I have since seen them in the display, so they made their way there with little issue.

I still like to turkey baster them up and drop them in the display. My dragon wrasse goes nuts for them, and the puffer likes em too.
 
I'm heading to a kid's b'day party right now but I'll get you some shots when I get home later today.

Carlo, no worries on any posts.... you have infinitely more knowledge then I do in this hobby and I enjoy learning reading your posts. My "I sound like I work for them" posts about marcorocks is simply because I've been so impressed with the looks of them, and the space they give critters like micro stars/pods etc, other LR I've gotten or base rock was more like something you'd find out in your yard and very dense/ugly :) That said I see the benefits of different type of rock, and have some of my old rock in my sump.
 
This is embarrassing... to admit you are outsmarted by tiny little crustaceans LOL

I tried to get some shots a couple days ago, I try with the turkey baster and can't seem to move fast enough to get them, I got the finest net I had, thinking I'd scoop up a ton and got 1 smaller one. Took a few shots that I will load on my computer later today to see if any are decent. I even go near the swarming sump with my net now and they all scurry, I swear they are smarter then my fish LOL

So add super intelligent/crafty non cannibalistic to the name ;)

One thing though, definitely have a reddish hue to them, maybe from cyclopeez of flake although I don't feed either that often... not sure is that is a normal coloration for mysis
 
Photos are pending... got 3 that aren't so bad and do a pretty good job of showing the shrimp and their color, not easy given how small they are. Of course I use AOL for hosting and the myftp space is down right now so I can't upload to it. Hopefully later it'll be up!
 
Thanks for the tip Carlo!

Here are the photos: one from through the sump side, one on a piece of paper, one on a fine mesh net

619_27_09_07_9_07_13_1.jpg

619_27_09_07_9_07_13_2.jpg

619_27_09_07_9_07_13_0.jpg
 
so thats what i keep seeing......... :eek:
i have swarms of them in my 20 gal.....they seem to thin out and then a week or two goes by and i see another swarm
yea for me too... ;D
 
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