Baby Cleaner Shrimp

[sharuq1]

According to several sources (books, magazines, reef central) I have read this is not an unusual occurence.

from "The Marine Reef Aquarium Handbook".

"Lysmata grabhami is a ready spawner in captivity"

"Lymata amboinensis, L. rathbuni, L. wurdemanni, L. seticauda and Stenopus hispidus have all been bred in aquariums. Lysmata are hermaphroditic for much of their lives, and almost any two will behave as a breeding pair.

"larvae are slightly larger than brine nauplii, move with very slow up-and-down jerks and congregate toward light."

as well as This short link on cleaners

Also if you are interested:

Cleaner shrimp thread

Another thread

Raising them is difficult, but breeding them or having them breed in your tank is not as uncommon as one might think.

Breeding and Propagation: Relative Breeding Ease: Difficult

Cleaner Shrimp are hermaphroditic and may spawn when kept in groups. Any pair of two shrimp may produce fertile eggs. Usually, mating occurs after one shrimp molts; the newly molted shrimp will receive sperm from its mate, which it uses to fertilize any eggs it produces. The eggs are green in color, and are densely packed below the parent's abdomen. The parent aerates the eggs by waving its pleopods to move water over them. As the eggs mature, they become paler in color and expand until they are no longer packed in rows, but in one aggregate group. After 14 to 20 days, the Cleaner Shrimp eggs begin to turn silver. This usually occurs the day that they will hatch. Also, the parent usually will not eat the day that the eggs will hatch. The adult will position itself in a gentle water current to aid the eggs in hatching. Hatching normally occurs one half to three hours after darkness falls, and the newly hatched Cleaner Shrimp swim directly toward any light source. Some clutches require two nights to hatch entirely. Directly after hatching its eggs, adult Cleaner Shrimp normally molt. The spawn normally require about 40 days to develop into adults. The tank where the newly hatched Cleaner Shrimp are kept should not be filtered; it will damage the shrimp. An aerating device on a low setting is often used. Newly hatched brine shrimp are used to feed the Cleaner Shrimp, and there should be quite a few present, since newly hatched Cleaner Shrimp are unable to hunt well. However, there should not be enough brine shrimp present so as to pollute the unfiltered tank water. Every other day, you may use a suction tube to clean the bottom of the tank. However, care should be taken not to suck up any Cleaner Shrimp.

from This link Edited March 13, 2008 by sharuq1

[Pier Pressure]

Hey, thank you, sharuq1. That was some interesting reading. I know from doing research that there is no way I can save the babies, but I like the idea of having such a natural food source in the tank. Everything was going crazy feeding that night - from the fish, to the inverts, to the anemones. I figure if something is not getting quite what it may need nutritionally - having this natural food source might help.

Really cool to watch and I do not really like the idea of the babies being eaten - but they look like bugs as opposed to perfect little fry so it is not that bad.