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幼蝦在綠水生長,繁殖加鹽,請參考此文,成功的例子
Breeding and Raising the Amano Shrimp
By Wilma Duncan
Amano shrimp, considered to be one of the greatest algae eating creatures for the aquarium and the name Amano is derived from Takashi Amano, photographer, artist, author, and the first in the world to use this creature. They originate from the grassy swamps in Japan and are very tolerant of water types. Coming from swamps leads us to believe they can tolerate different salinities. I have heard them referred to as the Japanese swamp shrimp. They are sensitive to ammonia/ammonium, and heavy metals. I was told heavy metals interfere with the shrimps molting process causing them to die.
The more I read about these strange creatures, the more I wanted them and the challenge of keeping and breeding them. Finally in the early part of 2001, I acquired seven of these creatures from a hobbyist friend. I placed them in a small five-gallon bare bottom tank with only a sponge filter for filtration. They remained there for two weeks, during this time; I lost two as they escaped from the tank. They are great escape artists. Caution must be taken not to place them in a tank filled near the top.
Later, I placed them alone in an older ten-gallon slate bottom tank with river rocks as substrate. I filled the tank two thirds full and added a submergible heater with temperature at 78 degrees. My pH is 7.4 and water is on the alkaline side. I added a tablespoon of aquarium salt to this set-up and lighting was fluorescent from my 1966 Metaframe stainless steel hood.
For filtration, I used a box filter with floss and charcoal. I added live aquarium plants laden with algae. Riccia fluitans, Elodea – anacharis, Vesicularia dubyana – java moss, and Lemna – duckweed. I also added a few rocks covered with java moss that was abundant with algae. I did a one third water change every three weeks altering the salt content, one without aquarium salt and the next with a tablespoon of salt. I changed the filter floss and charcoal with each water change. Feeding the shrimp consisted of several different types of food. I used a flake food, which consisted of a mixture of different flakes: brine shrimp, tropical, spirulina and kelp, and plankton. The shrimp thrived and no more deaths occurred.
I decided to contact my friend and order 10 more Amano shrimp. Upon arrival, several were dead in the bag, the remaining were placed in the tank that housed the previous shrimp. Two died and this left me with a total of fifteen shrimp. This shipment provided me with several females that appeared to be carrying eggs. Within a few days I lost 4 of the shrimp, leaving me a total of eleven. I knew I had at least four males as I could tell they were different in size and shape then the egg -laden females.
I have witnessed the males fighting on occasion and this usually happens prior to mating. I was lucky enough to witness a male and female mate. This usually occurs after a battle among the males and none of the males appear injured from their battle. The winner then approaches the female and then begins to go over her as if he is grooming her for the big event. This continues for several minutes and then he crawls under her and positions his body aligned to her – front to back and head to head. This female was laden with eggs. After a few minutes he left the female and went about the tank as nothing had happened.
Each day as I fed the shrimp, I checked to see if anymore had perished: I was thrilled as I discovered no more had perished. Every week, found me pruning my other planted tanks, for algae laden plants. These were added to the shrimp tank and within a few days all were cleaned of the algae. I had added a few Malaysian trumpet and ramshorn snails with the shrimp and all appeared to get along. I did notice the shrimp were eating the smaller ramshorn snails.
I was concerned that they would not receive the proper diet, which would allow them to molt properly. I decided to feed them a crab pellet twice a week. You are probably puzzled at why I would feed crab pellets. It’s these two ingredients: brewer’s yeast and calcium iodate. Would shrimp also benefit from these ingredients the same as crabs, lobsters, and crawfish? I knew these required a diet rich in calcium for development of their outer shells and healthy outer shells are an ongoing process to protect them from predators and disease, but would the shrimp also benefit.
So far, I have had had excellent results with my shrimp shedding and rebuilding their shells. Could it be that these pellets are part of the key to raising the baby shrimp and for the proper molting process: As I am not an authority in this field I cannot answer this question, but I do know that my shrimp are breeding and the babies are doing wonderful.
As the weeks passed, I added more algae plants and left the shrimp to their own device. About two months after receiving the last batch of shrimp a friend of mine was sitting at my kitchen table observing the shrimp tank, which is on a small heavy wooden table that I turned into a tank stand, near my kitchen table. Talk about a great dinner conversation among friends. Like many other hobbyists, I was running out of room for more tanks and now my kitchen was becoming a partial fish room. Suddenly, my friend became excited as she saw baby shrimp in the moss. I didn’t believe her and continued cooking dinner. She insisted I quit and come sit by the tank and see for my self. Before long I saw tiny movement in the moss and darting about the tank. I grabbed the magnifying glass and there they were: Miniature shrimp.
The tank was full of baby shrimp hiding among the plants. As I sat and watched them make hopping movements throughout the tank. I saw something unusual: There were several different sizes. A few were a half- centimeter and some were smaller and then there were others so small that they appeared to be floating eggs, tiny –free floating larvae.
I had read a couple of articles on these shrimp and learned that after breeding and after the eggs hatched, raising the shrimp were difficult. Time would tell if these would live and grow with their parents. Several weeks passed and they continued to grow, but not as much as I expected. I continued to monitor their existence in the tank; so far the parents were not displaying cannibalism, nor were the snails.
One morning I decided to move all to another 10-gallon tank in my spare bedroom. I would have loved to had a spare tank for the babies, but that was not possible. Having 27 other tanks left me little space for another one, so I decided to take the chance that the parents would not cannibalize them. I caught the parents first and then proceeded to remove the babies. A very slow process, many remained attached to the java moss and this was much easier. The hard work came after the rocks and live plants were removed. I tried catching them with a cup, and this worked great until I had removed almost all the water. I discovered, if I left a piece of floating anacharis the shrimp would come and cling to the plant. I would shake the plant over my container. Easy task until I realized the larger ones were hiding in all the mulm on the bottom of the tank. Five hours had passed and my aching back was telling me that this project must soon end. To speed the task, I decided to use my turkey baster. This worked well and soon all were caught. I had stopped counting at one hundred and knew there were probably that many more.
I was afraid the move from one tank to another would cause problems, but after a few days all appeared to be doing well. I continued to feed the same foods, and change a small amount of the water on a three-week schedule, altering the salt content. At this date all are doing well and I have shipped a few dozen small ones to a couple of friends.
Shipping was an experiment to see if they would survive, so far all are well. I do add a live plant in the shipping bag, as the shrimp must have something to cling to, if not chances are they will arrive dead. I removed another dozen and placed them in a small tank with cooler water to see if they will survive under these conditions. They have been in this tank for 4 weeks and appear to be doing fine. The older shrimp are now a centimeter long and color changing is taking place. On the carapace there is a slight tan color stripe running from the head to the tail.
My advice to anyone who would like to try spawning these shrimp is to have them in their own species tank, with lots of live plants, the main ones appear to be duckweed and plenty of java moss. There is something about java moss that these shrimp find as a food source. Every few weeks I add more java moss, as it seems to disappear. I also, recommend feeding the crab pellets and altering the salt content with each water change as this may imitate their natural breeding habitant.
The Amano shrimp is considered to be a great algae eater, but I have discovered they are wonderful creatures to work with and fun to watch.
Copyright ?2001 Wilma Duncan All rights reserved
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