My DRNS

[Santa]

Here are some Macro shots of my DRNS, taken with an attachable lens from my iphone!

Although I see plenty of berried females I am ever yet to see a baby survive to adulthood. Anyone have any tips?

[KeenShrimp]

Hi Santa,

I can't find the old thread, but I think @Baccus gave it a very good try trying to breed these guys without success ( apologies Baccus if I am losing my mind here).

Dave from Aquagreen knows how to breed them and it involves special greenwater culture with specific plankton, and also very specific leaf litter mulm in the bottom of the tank- no brackish water required for these. If you are super-keen, I think he sells some of that green starter culture.

I could not handle my DRNS girls being berried all the time and then the larvae covering my tank glass in thousands and then just dying off, so I split the males from the females into separate tanks. 

Good luck!

[Santa]

Wow thats a bummer that you weren't able to raise them up, I don't think I have even seen them in their larval stage though?

I shall definitely hit up Dave from aquagreen for that culture if he has some, sounds like it may be useful for my daphnia culture too!

[Baccus]

I think Dave from Aquagreen manages to breed these guys by having them in outdoor ponds, this allows the green water and other micro-organisms to be in the system.

For the majority of my native shrimp namely Chameleon, DRN and Blackmore River Shrimp I have found the most survival rate of offspring when the tank is heavily planted, plenty of mulm in the tank and adding Indian Almond leaves. I would suggest the best filtration for a tank of native shrimp would be the old faithful airdriven wool filled filters these are less likely to suck small shrimp in and if they do get into the filter they are likely to just live it up on the gunk in the filter rather than being mangled in the internal workings.

Because the shrimplets are literally so tiny (smaller than even a newborn cherry shrimp) I find when doing water changes its best to use a length of airhose as the siphon hose, almost any mesh or netting you could put over a siphon hose the shrimplets will still go through.

Also when doing what changes do as Dave suggests and pre-age the new water. I don't always leave the new water outside but I do generally get a few days of the water aging in a tub that has had chlorine and chloramine remover added, before adding it to the native shrimp tank.

[Grubs]

My DRNS reproduce in their tank but not in big numbers.  I use a sponge filter only and there is a fair bit of microscopic life in the water when you shine a torch through it at night but its not green water as such.  I had a fair bit of moss in the tank and I suspect this helps in providing a complex substrate for the larvae to drift into and find food.  I've not seen any planktonic larvae like DAS have - just tiny little DRNS appear "by magic".

Edited April 10, 2016 by Grubs

[Santa]

They are currently in a tank with crs and cherries set up more for the crs (lower temp) and it definitely isn't as full of microbial life as it could be as I do have some pygmy corries in there too. Which may explain a lack of baby drns too.

I have also received a reply from Dave and was given a lot of helpful info on a green water culture but from what I can gather they don't sell starter cultures.