Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 4: Preparing a good growing environment
• Part 2 of 4: Caring for adult shrimp
• Part 3 of 4: Hatch and feed the young shrimps
• Part 4 of 4: Troubleshooting
• Tips
• Warnings
• Necessities

Glass shrimp are small, transparent shrimp often sold as aquarium animals or fish food. While there are several species under the same name, they can all be cared for in much the same way. If the shrimp are kept in a comfortable environment without predators, they can reproduce quickly.

To step

Part 1 of 4: Preparing a good growing environment

1. Buy a large aquarium. Your tank should hold about four liters of water per shrimp. Glass shrimp are most comfortable in a 40 gallon tank, no matter how many you have.
   • If your tank is smaller than 40 liters, allow about one and a half liters of water per shrimp to compensate for the small habitat.
2. Buy a second tank for breeding. The hardest part of growing glass shrimp is keeping the young shrimp alive. If you hatch the eggs in the same tank that the parents live in, the fry can be eaten by the adults. The second tank does not have to be as big as the first, but a larger tank will give the young shrimp their best chance of survival.
3. Use any filter for your main aquarium and a sponge filter for the breeding tank. Filters are necessary to keep the aquarium water clean. Most filters suck in the water to clean it, but these can kill the young glass shrimp. So use a sponge filter to prevent this.
   • If your tank is larger than 40 liters and it contains both fish and shrimp, then it is good to use a hanging filter or canister filter to provide better cleaning. Never use anything other than a sponge filter for your breeding tank.
   • If you don't want to buy a sponge filter, you can cover the water inlet of your current filter with a sponge or a piece of nylon tights. If the filter inlet is too weak to suck in adult shrimp, you can also disconnect the filter before the eggs hatch and change 10% of the water daily until the fry are fully grown, then turn the filter back on.
4. Install an air pump in each aquarium. As with most aquarium animals, glass shrimp requires air to be pumped through the water so that they can breathe. Without an air pump, the oxygen in the water will disappear and the shrimp will suffocate.
5. Cover the bottom of each tank with sand or gravel. Sand or light gravel keeps the shrimp transparent, while dark gravel causes the shrimp to develop dark spots, making them more visible. Choose any color and type you want.
   • Look for additional details on how to set up a freshwater aquarium.
6. Fill the aquariums with suitable water. Tap water is treated with chlorine in many places. You have to treat that water with a dechlorinator or chloramine to make it safe for animals. Let it sit for at least 24 hours before adding the shrimp so that some of the chlorine can evaporate.
7. Keep the water at 18-28ºC. This is the wide range of temperatures that glass shrimp are comfortable in, but many people choose to stay roughly in the middle of this range. Place a thermometer in the tank to check the water temperature, and use an aquarium heater if you keep the shrimp in a cold room.
8. Add live plants and hiding places. Glass shrimp eat the debris that falls off plants, but you can also feed them food from the stores if you prefer not to have plants. Aquarium plants with fine, thin leaves are best, such as silkworm, cabomba and featherweed. If the shrimp are kept in an aquarium with fish, you should place small flower pots or other containers upside down to create hiding places that only the shrimp can enter.
   • For best results, allow plants about a month to stabilize the chemical value in the aquarium. Sudden changes in the value of nitrogen or other chemicals could kill your glass shrimp.
   • Look for further instructions on how to plant aquarium plants.
   • Adding plants to the breeding tank is highly recommended as plant waste is one of the few food sources small enough for the young shrimp. Many people use Java moss in the breeding tank, where plant waste lingers in it, to help the young shrimp eat.

Part 2 of 4: Caring for adult shrimp

1. Buy high-quality shrimp for pets and feed shrimp if you are going to breed them for pet food.Feed shrimps are bred to produce many young, but are generally more fragile and have a shorter lifespan. Properly cared for glass shrimp can live for a few years and are much easier to care for and breed.
   • The seller should know what kind of glass shrimp he is selling. You can also guess based on the living conditions: if the shrimps are kept in a small space with few plants, they are probably feed shrimps.
2. Introduce the shrimp slowly to new water. Let the bag of water containing the shrimp float on the water surface of the aquarium. Every 20 minutes, remove ¼ of the water from the bag and replace it with water from the aquarium. After doing this three or four times, empty the bag into the tank. This allows the shrimp to gradually get used to the change in temperature and chemical composition of the water.
3. Feed the shrimp small amounts of fish food. Shrimp are active scavengers, but while they can live on algae and plant waste if needed, you can stimulate reproduction by feeding them a minuscule amount of fish food daily. A single crushed pellet per day is enough for six adult shrimps.
   • If you also keep fish in the tank, use sinking pellets. The shrimp cannot compete with larger animals for floating food
4. Change the water every one or two weeks. Even if the water looks clear, chemicals could build up on it that prevent the shrimp from thriving. Change 20-30% of the water weekly for best results. Make sure the water temperature of the old and new water is the same to avoid stressing the aquarium inhabitants.
   • Changing 40-50% of the water every two weeks can also work well, especially if the tank contains relatively few fish or shrimp.
5. Be careful when adding fish to the tank. Almost any medium and large fish will eat glass shrimp, or at least scare them so much that breeding becomes difficult. If you want a varied aquarium, only add snails and small fish.
   • If you have decided not to use a breeding tank, do not add any fish to the tank you have. The adult shrimp will eat as much of the young shrimp, if other predators are added, few of the young shrimp will be able to mature.

Part 3 of 4: Hatch and feed the young shrimps

1. Check if you have both males and females. Adult female shrimp are generally much larger than the males. The size difference is significant, so you should be able to easily tell the difference once your shrimp are fully grown.
   • You don't need the same amount of each. One male for every two females is sufficient.
2. Watch for females bearing eggs. If you have taken good care of the glass shrimp, the females should produce eggs at least every few weeks. These are bundles of 20-30 small, greenish-gray eggs attached to the female's legs. These legs, or swimming legs, are short limbs attached to the female's abdomen, giving the appearance of the eggs attached to her abdomen.
   • Look from the side of the tank for the best view, and ask someone with a keen vision to help you if babies hatch before you see the eggs. 0
3. After a few days, transfer the females bearing eggs to the breeding tank. Allow the males to fertilize the eggs and then move the females. Use a net to catch the females and quickly move them to the prepared breeding tank without any other shrimp or fish. Place the breeding tank close by and move the shrimp immediately, if possible; females can drop their eggs when stressed, so make the movement as short as possible.
4. Wait 21-24 days for the eggs to hatch. Continue to monitor the females to monitor the progress of the eggs. By the end of the process, you may be able to see tiny black dots in each egg - these are the baby shrimp's eyes! When the eggs finally hatch, the female will swim up and shake the fry off her leg several at a time.
   • Do not disturb the female if you see her shake off her young, as they must be free within one hour to feed. It may take a while for her to finish, as the fry will have a better chance of survival in the wild if she deposits them in different places.
5. Move the female back to the main aquarium. After she has finished depositing the hatched fry, return the female to the other tank. The parent is no longer needed in the life of the young shrimp and could in fact eat her children.
   • Once the young shrimp are alone and move on their own, you may not even be able to see them. They are very small when they have just hatched. Continue to add food to the breeding tank for three weeks, even if you don't see the shrimp.
6. Feed them small amounts of specialized small foods. In the next week or two, these shrimp will be floating in their larval stage and have very small beaks. Your breeding tank should have enough plants and algae to produce food that is small enough for them, we call this food infusion animals. You should still supplement this food with some of the following foods, but keep in mind that shrimp only need small amounts:
   • Commercially purchased rotifers, baby brine shrimp, micro worms and powdered spirulina algae are all suitable foods for young glass shrimp.
   • Your cunt too paw food buy, which is intended for young fish. Make sure you buy the food in powder form and that it is suitable for egg-laying animals.
   • Push small pieces of yolk through a fine-mesh strainer if you don't want to use store-bought foods.
   • Java moss can help catch food, which the young shrimp can eat. However, do not add or remove plants while there are larvae in the tank, as this can upset the chemical balance of the water.
7. Feed them the same food as adult shrimp once they have legs. The surviving larvae will enter a teenage phase and look just like small adults. At this point they can eat normal food, although it is good to crush pellets and other large pieces of food to make it easier on them.
8. Move the shrimp to the main tank when you are fully grown. After one or two weeks, the shrimp will have all their legs and then look like small versions of the adult. After five weeks they are fully grown and can be placed in the main aquarium.
   • If you have a second batch of younger eggs or larvae in the breeding tank, relocate the larger fry after three to four weeks.

Part 4 of 4: Troubleshooting

1. Do not move the females if this prevents the eggs from hatching. Moving the females can cause them stress, which can affect adult growth and eggs. If the females drop the eggs or die after the move, adjust the main aquarium to take care of the fry there:
   • Remove any fish from the main tank. Since you are not going to use the breeding tank anyway, you can move them there. If necessary, adjust the plant composition according to the species.
   • Turn off the filter or cover it. If your filter has a water inlet tube, it will suck up and kill the young shrimp. Cover the inlet with a sponge or a piece of nylon stocking, or turn it off and clean the water manually by changing 10% daily until the fry is fully grown.
   • Accept that some of the young shrimp will be eaten by the adults. You can lower the chances of this happening by using a large tank, but it is difficult to prevent.
2. Keep an eye on whether the young shrimp are not eating. The floating larvae may not eat much right after they hatch. If they still ignore their food the next day, try a different type of food right away. They can starve quickly.
3. If all the shrimp die after placing them in the tank, use different water or introduce the shrimp more gradually. You may need to use tap water that has been treated with dechlorinator, or even use spring water. Do not use rainwater or water from the local river, unless there are glass shrimp living in the river in question.
   • Never pour the bag containing the shrimp directly into the aquarium. Check out other articles for instructions on how to introduce your shrimp.
   • It is also good to buy an aquarium test kit to test the characteristics of your water. See the Tips section below for correct pH, dH, and chemical composition for glass shrimp.

Tips

• Buy the shrimp from a pet store. Do not remove them from their natural habitat.
• If keeping track of pH and acidity, keep it between 6.3 and 7.5. The dH value, a measure of water hardness, must be between 3 and 10.
• If you keep track of the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels in the aquarium, keep it as close to zero as possible for better breeding results.
• If you don't want the shrimp to reproduce, keep only one sex of shrimp in your tank.

Warnings

• Make sure the shrimp are not in cold water as this can freeze them.

Necessities

• 2 aquariums or a breeding net
• Sponge filter or covered filter inlet, you can also place a breeding net on the other side of the aquarium
• Java moss and other plants
• A form of small food