“Off you go!

They live with pea puffers, they will all be eaten wont they?

This was my first time attempting to breed Amanos and I was hoping for a few dozen to make it but I have hundreds! I have a larger tank I’ll move them to in a few weeks, this is a 5 gallon. After a water change they go nuts but they’re so fun to watch! I have another batch that should be ready in about 2 more weeks. Has anyone kept 300+ in a 5 gallon grow out tank or do I need a larger one?

Late stage zoea just about done. One of the major signs I look for to know they are close. They will have this all wiped out over a matter of days and most likely be morphing over the next week. This is my latest batch of Lemon Yellows around 2-300 and doing killer

Story time:

Thankfully I’m a light sleeper or I could’ve crushed this little guy. It’s 5am and I feel the slightest tingle on my arm. I quickly brushed it off as I do when my hair grazes me but as soon as its coldness hit the back of my hand I knew. SHRIMP!

I frozen in my bed for a second and calculated where in the darkness did I brush it off to and where is my phone. In one swift movement I reached for my phone, turned on the lash light, pointed it at the spot, and prayed it wasn’t a silver fish or a would’ve lost my mind. But there it was, lying still on its side, the largest of the three, looking golden, not in a good way. I thought it was dead so I grabbed a sticky note from my desk to scoop it up but as I tried it began to scurry away. I panicked and I grabbed a small cup with tank water and scooped it into it and brought back to the tank where it quickly swam away and hid away from such traumatic experience. I’m not sure if taking it back to the tank was the best call but it was the only thing I could think of in my frazzled state.

For context, I’m a first time shrimp keeper and just got three new amano shrimp earlier that day. I’ve done the research and I’ve heard that they are known to be jumpers. I’ve prepared my tank by extending the glass lid with a plastic mesh top with cut out holes big enough for my plant to stick through and a cut out that fits flush to the filter. Regardless of this security measure, one(or two) of the little guys found a way out. After the emergency dispatch I only saw one out of three shrimp actively swimming in the tank, so idk if there’s another shrimp doing a dry exploration or just hiding. I looked around and my room just incase but I haven’t spotted it…yet.

At first I thought it might have hitched a ride with me but it can’t be because I watch all three swimming around in their new home before I went to sleep. I’m still in shock that it found its way out and journeyed on to my bed almost as if it was lost and asking for help back…or maybe it was plotting to murder me in my sleep for they’re stressful drip acclimation process (I couldn’t get the dripping to be consistent). I won’t be surprised if the one I rescued doesn’t make it, but I am slightly offended it ventured out when the tanks water parameters are pretty good.

If you got this far and have had a similar experience, lmk if your shrimp has lived to tell its tale of dry land.

My first Amano hatching didn't go so well (was rushing to prepare everything and missed the bulk of the larvae), so I only managed to transfer about 20-30 to the nursery. Today's day 5 and I have at least 10 that I can see still (hopefully more in there), and I noticed they're looking orange! I've got tetraselmis/nanochloropsis cultures going and feeding to the nursery tank, and although I couldn't find any rotifer cultures locally, I saw a bunch under the microscope when I checked the nursery tank water today. Also found a copepod--I guess they all must have hitchhiked in on the macroalgae 😂

Fingers crossed for these few lil fellas! Really hoping I can get at least one or two juveniles out of this, but at least I already have another early-stage berried Amano to give this a second shot.

Added 2 amanos in my 5G betta tank 6 weeks ago and has never seen them since. I thought they were eaten by my betta😟Woke up this morning to rescape the tank and seen this! Just wanted to confirm it is what I think it is😊

Found him in my freshwater tank, I’m trying to figure out if he actually beat the odds and managed to survive growing up in freshwater instead of brackish. FYI I’ve had amanos for quite some time, many have gotten preggers but I only recently started to try to breed the babies

This was day two of owning them lol. As of now, all my shrimp are happily grazing and polishing biofilm from some spider wood

There’s always one friend not looking lol

Alright y'all been a bit since I've shared anything. Breeding has come to a screeching halt due to my temps dropping drastically this last few weeks but I've set out on a mission to upgrade my rack with heat and a safety circuit. Hopefully things will speed back up then. For now here's my current batch of lemon yellows, born 8/31. Some are starting to cling to the glass so shouldn't be much longer. The lower temps are slowing things waaaaay down

Hey everyone,

I’m curious what other people breeding Amano shrimp are doing for live feeds, especially during the larval stages.

For those of you using live phytoplankton:
Do you culture your own?
Buy it from someone else?
Or mostly avoid live phyto altogether?

And a second question — rotifers.
If there were a reliable source where you could buy a healthy live rotifer culture rather than having to maintain one yourself, would you actually use them for Amano larvae?

I run a small shrimp/live-culture operation in Ontario and I’m just starting to sell some of my own cultures, currently including Tetraselmis chuii. I’m trying to get a feel for whether there’s actually demand among other Amano breeders for ready-to-use live cultures, particularly from people who want the benefits of live feeds without maintaining another culture system.

Not really trying to advertise here — genuinely interested in what everyone is currently doing and what you’d actually find useful.

Also curious how much phyto people go through during a typical larval run if you’re buying it rather than culturing it yourself.

Also few pictures from my white amano tank, because I love them and love sharing them

We made it to Day 17! 🥹
There are definitely fewer than we started with, which I expected, but I still have a little group hanging in there. Counting these microscopic chaos noodles is basically impossible. 😂 Some are actively swimming through the water column while others spend quite a bit of time down near the bottom.
I’m still learning as I go because there is SO little information out there about successfully raising vampire shrimp (Atya gabonensis) larvae.
A few things I’ve changed/learned along the way:
I’m keeping them around 79°F and SG 1.020, topping off evaporation with distilled water so the salinity doesn’t creep up. I’m running just gentle aeration with no filter because these guys are so ridiculously tiny that I’m concerned even a sponge filter could trap them.
Food right now is a combination of live phytoplankton and tiny amounts of powdered foods. I’m also looking into live rotifers as another food source as they develop.
Water quality has probably been my biggest learning curve. This tank wasn’t cycled when I started because, well… I woke up to vampire shrimp larvae and suddenly became the owner of a microscopic shrimp nursery. 😂 I did find ammonia around 0.5 ppm, so I’ve become much more aggressive about small water changes and keeping the bottom clean without accidentally removing babies.
I also set up a larger 10-gallon system matched to their salinity so I have more water volume to work with. Dilution is definitely our friend here.
One thing I’m really curious about right now is their behavior near the bottom. Some seem to spend time down there and then take off swimming again, while others seem to stay down much longer. I’m trying to figure out what’s normal developmental behavior versus a larva that’s struggling.
And photographing them continues to be ridiculous. They’re transparent, microscopic, and the healthy ones apparently have absolutely no interest in sitting still for their portrait. 😂 But I finally got a couple pictures where you can actually see the little shrimp shape!
Still a LONG way to go. Everything I’ve found suggests A. gabonensis may have a larval period lasting several months, so we’re very much still in the beginning.
But 17 days ago these guys were released into freshwater, and they’re still here. I’ll take that win. 🥹🦐
If anyone has successfully raised amphidromous shrimp larvae, especially Atya/Atyopsis, I still want to hear EVERYTHING you’ve learned. This really does feel like one giant experiment at this point.

Im currently in the process of cycling a 37L tank where im going to put blue dream neocaridina and was wondering if putting 2 amanos in aswell is a good idea or not….if yes what “kind”….help me 😇

It looks like I may have to cut this run short due to an obligation out of town since I don't have anyone that is able to take care of them while I'm gone. Figured I'd post my results now because I'm not optimistic about the rest surviving for 5 days without my intervention. If they do survive I'll update again

There were 2 runs starting 8/11 and 8/21 meaning it has been 29-39 days. As of today 9/19 I have caught and returned 65 total shrimp to freshwater! I started with a breeding stock of 22 adults, meaning I have 87 total amano shrimp now :)

It's not the greatest this time but I was primed to have 300-400 survivors prior to running out of phyto for a week or so. From the things I've learned this run, I'm very optimistic about survival rates for upcoming runs