Raising Shrimp

[bolo]

I know this a silly question to some but here goes. I want to keep shrimp in a fish tank and raising them to be big and fat. No, Im not raising them to eat but for my good ol' friend Mr. Snook. Finding hand picks has been tough and pricey. Does anyone know what size tank is need to hold maybe 5 dozen or more shrimp? Do I need a wet/dry or a aeration system will do? Last, what the hell does a shrimp eat?

[bolo]

Thanks Rob.

[gruntking]

i think its a good question an i would love to know how it turns out

ive thought about doin it with like pilchards an pinfish
just to be able to have fresh live bait almost anytime i want

you not havin to worrie if i can catch bait to go fishing

[NICK123]

i would like to do pilchards like that what would they eat

[fishnfool73]

I think pilchards would be tough to keep as they are fast swimmers and would bump themselves to death in the tanks corners. Pinfish or grunts would be easy though.

[gruntking]

i dont know i think with maybe like a 75 gallon tank i still think you could keep pilchards

[bolo]

i dont know i think with maybe like a 75 gallon tank i still think you could keep pilchards

You probably need a round tank to keep them from stressing out. You should stock grunts. You are the Gruntking, you can summend them up with your mind like Aquaman.

[mikeypbg]

Custom made acrylic tanks are the answer to the bumping issues. Large round cylinders with sand on the bottom, plumbed for filtration, with a wet dry. I know a guy that used to build them, not sure how much he would charge. If you are interested let me know and I could give him a call.

[sprtsracer]

Try some sea monkeys and feed them some steroids

Actually, "sea monkeys" are nothing more than "brine shrimp".

[TheApprentice]

I met this cool dude at boynton inlet who had these really cool lids for his bait bucket and this way overgunned aerator. He was using these tiny hooks and cutting squid into these long sabiki "fly" kind of shapes. He certainly wasn't going for anything big. Turns out he was fishing for his aquariums. The guy was like an expert on keeping all of the common stuff in an aquarium. Although I didn't get into it with him on the shrimp question, he did go on and on about different fish and keeping them in tanks. He said reef fish (and stuff like shrimp) can indeed do really well in square tanks, but that stuff like threadfin and pilchards and blue runners, no matter how small just don't dig on the corners at all and will inevitably stress and die.

Just like mikeypbg and fishnfool said, for those, you've got to have a round tank. This guy said that by the big issue would be temperature, that in a such a small environment fish could get easily shocked and stressed by the kind of temp changes that go on in a small tank.

It didn't sound good for pilchards and stuff like that.

I was thinking the same thing. Epic baitgathering pilchard trips to the keys and then crushing the fish with them at the inlet. Dude told me that if it could be easily done, didn't I think the guys in the bait shops would sell pilchards? You got a point, I said. LOL.

The guy was funny. He pulled up a wrasse and almost did a backflip he was so happy.

Let us know how the shrimp thing goes if you get into it. Sounds like a cool experiment.

[4wheelangler]

I know this a silly question to some but here goes. I want to keep shrimp in a fish tank and raising them to be big and fat. No, Im not raising them to eat but for my good ol' friend Mr. Snook. Finding hand picks has been tough and pricey. Does anyone know what size tank is need to hold maybe 5 dozen or more shrimp? Do I need a wet/dry or a aeration system will do? Last, what the hell does a shrimp eat?

I've kept some local-type shrimp in my aquarium for a couple months. They eat algae, phytoplankton and tiny little critters(amphipods) that live in the sand and rocks along with almost any other scraps that fish leave behind. There are pellets available designed specifically for feeding shrimp. You would need a good sand bed made with what is called live sand. It would probably help to get a amphipod starter kit from the web and season your tank for 6-12 weeks with the live sand, the amphipods, some live rocks and some different types of algae plants, ie calerpa, kelp, red algae, sea grass, etc. Also a good phytoplankton supplement.

Amphipod starter kit: http://www.ipsf.com/podbreedingkit.html This site has a few things you can use to get started.

One thing to keep in mind, the shrimp like to bury themselves in the sand and sift out their food matter, so your tank may be pretty cloudy.

as far as size, I figure to allow for decent growth in a reasonable amount of time you would need as big a tank as possible. Probably at least 75-100+ gals. Oh, one other thing, all shrimp, all crusteceans actually, need healthy amounts of marine trace iodine and a good hiding place in order to properly molt(ecdysis) their exoskeleton every few weeks. Otherwise the stress and die quickly.

Heres a very general link from Wiki on shrimp farming, of course they talk about a much larger scale but you may face some of the same issues mentioned here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrimp_farming

Let us know how it goes and feel free to PM me if you'd like a hand setting this up.

[bolo]

Friend donating a 55 gallon aquriam. I do not know much on saltwater aquriam. Can someone direct me to the right forum or web site to get more info. Im planning to grow steriod raging shrimp.

[4wheelangler]

Friend donating a 55 gallon aquriam. I do not know much on saltwater aquriam. Can someone direct me to the right forum or web site to get more info. Im planning to grow steriod raging shrimp.

PM me. You can start with these:

http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/sbegin.html

http://fins.actwin.com/

http://members.tripod.com/mark26/gensalt1.html

http://www.reefs.org/

Those should get you well on ypur way. Also visit your local pet store and ask questions, lots of them.

[james380]

Friend donating a 55 gallon aquriam. I do not know much on saltwater aquriam. Can someone direct me to the right forum or web site to get more info. Im planning to grow steriod raging shrimp.

Great. That's all we need is giant mutated Chinese shrimp. Here comes the next 'B' horror flick. When the shrimp strikes back.

[NICK123]

hes part Jamaican really.huh

[bolo]

Thanks for the info guys. I'll take pics and document the process.

[bobwired]

When all my freshwater fish got ick, i dismantled that setup and put the filter in my 55 gallon on my back patio. I usually have mojarra in it, but i havent made it out to my bait spot in a while. Plus now im boat cheating and trying to get the boat up to par. But the sand perch are relatively easy to keep and i've thrown quite a few finger mullet in there as well.

[bolo]

Cool, thanks for the link. Im not going to breed the shrimp. My plans are to keep them long enough so they grow big and fat. Hand pick has been very tough during the summer.

[frayedknot]

I have a bait pen almost the same as this, but mine is round. I feed the bait chum or Bionic Brine. They last for weeks.

[Cookinman]

He is a Jamaican, of Chinese descent. The two of you together should be able to create some bionic shrimps...

Or some really awesome sezchuan oxtail !