Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait raising P. kadiakensis in tanks

I am looking into breeding P. kadiakensis in my garage in tanks.Does anyone have any knowledge on this subject? I would like to reproduce them for my pond and a lot of local people with ponds around me would like some too. I would appreciate any info you guys have to help me get started. Thanks, John

Interesting project John. There are threads on Pond Boss about shrimp in ponds but I don't recall anyone trying to raise them in tanks. Hang on for better input. This could be the makings of a great Pond Boss article as well.

I think I read that any small invertebrate will often get sucked up in your filtration system in a tank quickly after hatch and most likely kill them. Also it escapes me at the moment but the very specific food source they need right after birth also limits the ability to raise them in tanks, because you cant get enough of it in there.

Sorry my details are a lil fuzzy and could be completly wrong but im pretty sure thats what makes it hard to do. You would be much better off raising them in a very small pond and try to limit the predators that get in it. Much like CJ is doing with a forage pond.

Do some research tho, and hopefully Im totally wrong.!

John, the challenge is the very small young are difficult to feed. Their young or larvae are planktonic and feed upon zooplankton, algae, and detritus. Often people refer to there food as "green water". You can culture green water and put large quantities of it into your indoor tank to feed the young grass shrimp. It's difficult to do in large quantities.

As jakeb said, I have decided to try to raise them in a small outdoor forage pond. The results of that should be known by summer time...

I still think as grass shrimp become more and more known to the pondmeister, they will be stocked more commonly. I feel when you stock your FHM, grass shrimp should also be stocked.

I have a lot more experience raising the brackish water species of grass shrimp and the Florida freshwater species than P. kadiakensis. However, they should be very similar as they both have a larval stage. But since I acquired P. kadiakensis last year I am hoping to get more experience with them as well as I think they are the species which is the best adapted to most ponds in the US.

Hi John!

I want to raise them in a small forage pond as per Jakeb's suggestion. I believe they prefer spawning in aquatic vegetation and that might be tough to reproduce in a tank - not sure, I have no experience with aquariums. I think a small forage pond with dimensions as modest as 10x20x 3-4' depth could be productive. As long as you lack anything that preys on the Shrimp I think even starting with a handful should render good results in a year or so....

Let me know what you plan to do!

Hmmm...... So if I were to culture this green water how would one go about doing it and would a filter just clean it out? I think this can be done indoors I just need to figure out how. I have a 2 to 2 1/2 acre pond within 75 feet that I could pump water from if needed to get the good water , but that kinda defeats the purpose of having a heated room so the water would stay warm. Do they need a cold spell like some fish and then warm again to get the breeding started or can they breed year round if the temps are right? Even if I pumped in the water I dont know how much plankton would be in it for the larvae. I typically get a ton of FA on the surface in masses and what I believe to be Chara growing around the shallows. It get's so thick in the heat of the summer it's not even fun to fish because your always dragging in weeds. Anyways thanks for the responses.

JohnK, here's some info on shrimp, the NANFA forum has a lot of good info.
http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/topic/6...__1&#entry54207

JohnK,
I often grow tilapia fry in green water for the first week post hatch. It's pretty easy to get it started. I use lots of aeration but no filtering in those tanks. Only "filtering" is a partial water change, if there are problems.

I would be interested to see how the shrimp would fare in such a situation.

I agree I hope you try something JohnK and let us know how it goes.

Fairy shrimp and glass/grass shrimp have very different habitats and spawning styles.

I have successfully raised Florida grass shrimp in a small 5 gallon aquarium using only a small corner filter using lots of live plants. They live plants and minimal filtration seem to provide plenty of natural food. I kept them with least killifish who also did well in those conditions.

Hey, sounds cool, Let me know how you created the green water will yah. Thanks for the links guys there was a ton of good info there. Hope to get something up and runnin in the next month or so. Also curious if anyone would purchase these shrimp as larvae right after they hatch in a larger quantity of course. Thanks, John

There are a number of ways to make green water... Do a web search if you like.

This is how I culture my green water:
Add old aquarium water, along with some dead plant matter or detritus to a glass quart jar or similar container.Fill the container about 3/4 full. Allow this container to sit in a windowsill for a few days catching some sunshine. In a few days it should be cloudy and/or green tinted. It is then ready to harvest and should have very little smell. But, if you are curious enough to stick your nose where it really doesn't belong you will be duly rewarded.

You can either harvest an ounce or two from the top, with an eye dropper or for larger amounts/container a turkey baster taking care to not get any of the mulm or solid material. Squirt this tastiness directly into the tank containing the larvae.

In a 10 gallon tank, 2 oz or so per day of the culture should keep the larvae fed until they molt and mature into miniature adults. If doing lower numbers, simply keeping an unkept aquarium with lots of dead plant pieces, detritus etc on the bottom will support the larvae. However, most aquarium keepers don't like the way aquariums look when kept this way... If you keep several jars going, you will have a constant mature source of culture to feed your larvae.

Capturing and sorting grass shrimp larvae would be a trick! But adult grass shrimp are and will be in high demand and could easily carry a 25-40 cent per shrimp price.

I understand the need for the shrimp and I would like my own supply too. I have several large tanks and I would like try and get as many shrimp breeding as possible. I need to figure out how many will fit in a 55 gal or maybe 150-300 gal. It just depends on their demand for space. Will they eat the larvae or do they just eat plant matter and plankton? I have a lot of options as far as tanks go and I can always get a rubbermaid from tractor supply if need. Basically they don't need the filtration sytem maybe just a purge now and again is what I am gathering. Also some aeration and slow moving or non moving water. Is this correct? Well hopefully next week I can start insulating the room in my garage and get some heat going in there. That should make keeping the water warm easier. Also does anyone know if you can get them to breed year round with proper temps? Thanks a ton guys and when I get this going I will take photos although it may be a month or so.

Oh yeah, are the P. kadiakensis native to the leavenworth Kansas area or Fort scott area by chance. I swear while seining in a creek by fort scott last year I got a ton of these in my net. Any way to tell if they are indeed this particular species? If I can I will take a trip down there when it warms up and grab some and post a photo. Thanks again

I would go out on a limb to say they are probably P. kadiakensis, however if they are native to your area it dosent really matter what species they are because you know they will survive.

Once CJ had a wonderful post comparing the lifestyles of the most common species of ghost/glass/grass shrimp know to the U.S. If I remeber correctly there were only 2-3 completly freshwater types and of those I think P. kad is the only one that would live year round in KS.

I paid .50 each for adults at the local chain pet store. They lasted about a month.

The ones you buy from a pet store are almost always Palaemonetes paludosus. They require fairly warm temps and as far as I know, can breed year round. I have successfully bred them in aquariums from wild caught shrimp from Florida.

Also, there are 3 or 4 other species that are "brackish" water species. P. pugio being the most common of them. They prefer salinities in the 5 ppt to 20 ppt but can survive in completely freshwater for varying amounts of time depending on the species. All species require brackish waters to successfully spawn as their larvae require it whereas the adults are more tolerant. I collect P. pugio by the thousands at my dad's house on the Chesapeake Bay and use them to feed my aquarium fish and use them for bait in the Potomac when fishing for BG and other sunfish. They make great bait.

Kansas does have P. kadiakensis native to it's waters. From my research they reproduce twice a year with their biggest reproduction time being spring with a smaller one in the late summer. TJ Hudson a member on here and I bought grass shrimp last year from a dealer in NE and stocked them into ponds. We're waiting to see how well our stocking did...