while i was watching a peppermint shrimp in my tank it took off really fast and released a bunch of babies. how do i take care of these??? will any survive if i just leave them in there?????? any help would be great!!! thanks[/u]
As already mentioned, peppermint shrimp are known to reproduce in captivity (we had it happen in one of our tanks). Raising them wouldn't be easy so most people look at it as a good (short term) source of food for their other tank inhabitants.
I had a gaggle of 6 peppermint shrimp in my fuge for the express purpose of having them reproduce to feed my mandarin. They are, admittedly, hard to raise in a normal reef tank, and mostly end up as food, as already mentioned. I had purchased the book featured in the above media review link- it outlines how to set-up a rearing system and breed them. Unless you are ready to set-up the new system(about twice as complex as raising brine, but doable) I wouldn't bother getting the book. I fed phytoplankton and pulverized flake to the babies(in the fuge) to get them to grow into mandarin edible size, as prescribed in the book. I never saw any more than half an inch in size. My Mandarin was fat and happy though! :wink:
