Pregnant Ghost Shrimp?

[Vizja13]

So I have several ghost shrimp in my 29gal, and one of them has a bunch of eggs all of a sudden.

I really don't know much about these guys, should I just leave her and let the other fish/shrimp eat the babies when they arrive or...?

Any help/suggestions/info links would be greatly appreciated!

[sandybottom]

i also have some pregnant ghosties. i just leave mine in there. unless you have a nursery for them,it's kind of a hassle.if your tank is heavily planted they have more of a chance to make it. you would have to have a prefilter or sponge filter for them. they get sucked up by the filter otherwise. if you try to move them when they are berried sometimes they absorb the eggs.

[Vizja13]

I'll hopefully be ordering more plants in the next few days...though I'm in the middle of cycling the tank so I don't want to change my filter type...I really am mostly concerned with the moms health so as long as SHE is safe in the tank, I don't mind the babies becoming fish chow for the betta/endlers/shrimp in there. Extra protein.

[aemaki09]

if you want the babies to have any chance of making it you'll have to move them into their own nursery so that no other fish eat them. They are in larval stage for the first couple of weeks and just float around in the water so they would be a super easy snack for anyone else. But the mom will be fine, she wont lose any mobility over having eggs under her. It'll take about 3ish weeks for them to hatch. And I think thats all I have to add

[Vizja13]

Heh, I could always catch a few and put them in a breeder net, just for fun. I'll have to do more research into the kind of care they need though.

[tekkguy]

If you can somehow get the berried female into the breeding net (same tank so no shock) your babies will have a better chance. You would have to remove mom after hatching or the babies will get eaten. Unlike most freshwater shrimp, the babies need infusoria or egg yolk, etc. unfortunately, ghost shrimp babies are very hard to raise outside of green water environments where food is plentiful.

You should do some Google-fu to get some more info. I don't want to link to other fish forums here!